Johto
by Lady Serebi
Summary: Haruka and Tsukasa finally meet Yochi, the Ground Master. Will they be able to work together as a team and get through Union Cave? And how will Sakura react to Pieter's advances? Was that Feuille that Swaz had been talking about? Will I ever shut up? RnR!
1. Prolouge Black Death

_**Johto**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.**_

**Prolouge**

"Oi, Yochi." The Earth Pokemon master turned around to look at her Dark Pokemon owning subordinate who had spoken.

"Yes, Duister? What is it?" Yochi asked, cradling her head in her palm.

"Team Rocket's new leader has accepted our deal," the dark girl answered. "We should begin our take over of Jhoto in a few days." Yochi nodded, agreeing.

"Very well. Fetch Bellus for me, will you?" Duister bowed.

"Aye, I shall, Lady Yochi." Yochi frowned at Duister.

"Will you stop calling me 'Lady' this and 'Lady' that? It's annoying." Yochi complained.

"Sure, sure. Want me to catch your Skitty?" The Earth Pokemon master nodded, and Duister set off to find Bellus and Yochi's Skitty. Knowing Bellus, she'd be training her Grass Pokemon, mainly her Roserade and Venusaur, in the Grassy Plains battlefield. Skitty, however, was a much harder to find, and even more to catch. The pink feline was alway hiding in new spots, most likely to avoid her Mama's love. Yochi loved her Skitty a bit too much. Skitty was so loved it could even be used for a hostage. Duister smirked, and headed towards the Grassy Plains battlefield. Right, left. Left, right. Right, right, left. Why did this building have so many damn hallways? Duister didn't know, but she figured that incase they got millons of Grunts then they'd need them. Too bad they only had about twenty Grunts. Why did they call them Grunts, anyways? Duister pondered this as she walked into the large artifical grass room with the artifical sun, looking for Bellus.

There she was. She was using her newly obtained Turtwig against Tempidus's hatched Torchic. Fire vs Grass. Bellus was still new to the Black Death, and she may have thought more about her looks than her smarts, but if there was one thing she knew how to do, it was to beat a Fire type with a Grass type. She'd done it many times against Tempidus's Pokemon. Too bad Tempidus had beaten her about twenty times more than she had beaten him. Duister walked over to the edge of the ring.

"Oi, Bellus. Yochi wants to talk to you." Duister said right before she had to dodge a badly aimed Razor Leaf from Turtwig. She got a few cuts on her right arm from not dodging quickly enough. Duister swore.

"Can I finish my battle with Tempidus first?" Bellus asked. Duister shrugged.

"I don't know, and I don't care. But if you do intend to keep battling, make it quick. Yochi hates to wait, y'know." Bellus nodded.

"Alright, Bloom, let's go with a Tackle, then follow up with a Bite!" Bellus commanded. Bloom the Turtwig nodded, before charging at the rival Torchic. Tempidus smirked.

"Alright, Torchic! Let's show them your Fire Blast!" The Torchic took in a deep breath, and Duister's eyes narrowed. Tempidus was always a TM whore. He always powered up his Pokemon with the strongest moves avaliable. Bellus gasped loudly as the large star shaped fireball hit Bloom. Bloom fainted, and Tempidus's smirk grew even wider.

"Looks like I win again, eh?" The Fire Pokemon Trainer said smugly. "Next time, why don't you battle against Soffio. She does have Water Pokemon, after all." And with that, Tempidus recalled his Torchic, saying that it did good, before walking out of the Grassy Plains training field. Duister looked over at Bellus questioningly. She didn't look too happy. She recalled Bloom, and then dashed out of the room.

"O...kaaaayyyy...I think I'm gonna go make myself some food." Duister said before walking out of the room and heading towards the kitchen, uneager to find Yochi's Skitty.

_And Johto returns! This time with less errors (I hope)!_


	2. Enter Haruka! Elm's Evil Lab!

_**Johto**_

_Disclaimer:_ I do not own Pokemon. This will apply to all chapters after this.

**Chapter One:** Choose a Pokémon, Haruka!

Sixteen year old Haruka Leaf had finally managed to get her mom to let her be a Pokemon Trainer. And it had only taken three years of whining, too. It was currently 11:59, and Haruka eagerly awaited her mother to return from the PokeGear Repair Shop. A few seconds after it had turned to Twelve, Haruka's mother walked into the room. Like her mother, Haruka had blue hair that she always tied into two pig tails, which the ends always seemed to defy gravity no matter how hard Haruka tried to get them to stay down. Haruka had long since given up trying to get them to go down. Haruka had also inherrited the brown eyes that the female side of family always had gotten. Haruka wore her mother's Ranger Jacket, since it was too small for her mom to fit into, a basic black t shirt, and some black shorts.

"All right, you. I'll let you go on your Pokemon adventure, if you promise to call me every week if you can and show me any new pokemon you catch." Haruka's mother said as she handed her the newly repaired PokeGear. Haruka nodded eagerly.

"Yes, mum! Oh, I can't wait! I already know what Pokemon I'm gonna get! I'm gonna get a Squirtle!" Haruka cried enthusiastically. Haruka's mother sweatdropped.

"Sorry, sweetie, but that not a choice here." Haruka visably shrunk down, muttering angrily about how they should be able to get Squirtles in all regions by now.

"Well, bye, I suppose." Haruka said as she walked out the still open door and into the bright sunlight. She heard her mother reply to her with a 'bye, call me soon, sweetie!', and headed over to the Lab that was next to her house. Thanks to the lab, Haruka had spent many a hour listening to Pokemon rampage about being poked and proded. She turned the doornob and went inside, swollowing. It was just as they had said. The lights were almost all out, except for one that kept flickering on and off. Cages lined the right wall, and tables with things that strapped the creatures down on the left. Pokemon howled miserably in the cages.

Haruka walked up to a cage, one with a Charizard in it, and almost had her head clawed off. Haruka grimaced. How could they be so cruel?

"Hey you!" Haruka turned around to see a man in a white lab coat run up to her. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I'm here to get my Pokemon, sir." The scientist looked at her sadly.

"Oh. Well, you might as well come with me." The scientist said as he walked off. Haruka followed. This place was horrible. It was dark and scary, and all these Pokemon that were locked up had to be miserable. How could Haruka's nice, quiet town have a hell hole like this, pretending to be a Pokemon Lab when it was really a Pokemon Torture Center. Were all labs like this. Haruka shook her head. No, they couldn't be. The police wouldn't allow so many places like this to exsist. Or would they? They've been so caught up with the presence of Black Death and Team Rocket in the Jhoto region and the Kanto region. Maybe they didn't have the time?

As they walked through the lab, they passed rooms with windows where Haruka could see Pokemon being experimented on. In one room, Haruka spotted a pink haired humaniod creature with horns sticking out of it's head in a cage, odd hand things swaying around ominously. As they passed by even more rooms, Haruka saw tanks. They had things floating in them, and Scientists were cursing and shouting. Thankfully, they arrived soon.

"This is where Elm should be," the Scientist said as he showed her the door. "I will wait for you out here, Miss." Haruka nodded shakily, and twisted the nob. She walked into the room, where a old man sat typing away on a computer. Haruka cleared her throat, and the old man looked at her. Haruka froze up a bit.

"Ah, so you are Haruka." Haruka nodded. The old man smirked. "You want to be a Pokemon Trainer, don't you?" Haruka nodded once again. "Well then," he pointed at three Pokeballs on a desk. "Chose one. I will not tell you what is in the Pokeballs." Haruka nodded, and walked over to the table. She thought, and held her hand over the middle one, but shifted her hand over to the left one a few seconds after, and then shifted her hand over the ball on the right. Her hand acted on it's own and picked up the ball on the right. The old man smirked. "Very well then. That is your Pokemon." He walked over and handed her a black device that looked like her Nintendo DS.

"That is a Pokedex. It will record data on all Pokemon you see. It records even more data if you capture Pokemon. Now, get out. I have work to do." The old man shoved Haruka out the door. The Scientist was waiting, just as he had said he would.

"Time to go now, Miss." The Scientist said. Haruka nodded, and the Scientist escorted her to the front of the building. "Good luck, young Trainer. Oh, and take these, too." The Scientist handed her a bag that could be put on your shoulder or carried by the strap on the back. Haruka nodded, and she took the bag and ducked under the strap and made in comfortable.

"That should have enough supplies for you until you reach the first Gym." Haruka nodded.

"Thank you!" She called back as she exited the building. The Scientist frowned.

"I'm not too sure you should be thanking me, Miss." He muttered, before turning and continuing his work.

_Chapter one of Johto. Elm seems a bit evil. By the way, this is set about twenty to thirty years after the normal plotline. Team Rocket and the the other groups still exist, and they're still as much of a pain as usual._


	3. Team of Two! A Bit of Training!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Two:** Team of Two! Capturing Chika!

The second Haruka was out of New Bark Town, she threw the Pokeball into the air and it exploded. A semi transparent red light came from the ball and took the shape of a well known mouse Pokemon. A blue and peach creature with a long snout blasted the red light away, and blinked a few times to get its eyes adjusted to the light.

"Cyn?" Haruka's face brightened when she saw the cute mouse Pokemon, and she had to stop herself from picking up the Pokemon and squeezing it to death.

"A Cyndaquil! How cute!" The Cyndaquil looked around, panicking.

"Cyn! Cyn cyn da quil! Quil!" The mouse Pokemon looked up a Haruka. "Cyn! Cyndaquil!" It asked, while Haruka looked at the Pokemon stupidly, unable to understand what it was saying. Then she remembered the new rule that was passed a few years back. She unzipped her bag, and shifted through all the items in her bag.

"Translator...translator...translator...I know they put a requirement on these things...AHA!!" Haruka finally found the black collar with the microphone and speakers on it. She unhooked the buckle, and placed it loosely around Cyndaquil's neck.

"Now, can you repeat what you said?" Haruka asked. The small fire mouse nodded.

"I don't know where I am, or who you are. Elm doesn't seem to be around anywhere, either. Care to fill me in?" Haruka scratched her head, unsure of how to explain that she was now the fire mouse's Trainer.

"Well, my name is Haruka Leaf. I'm a newbie Pokemon Trainer, and Elm kinda gave you to me. We're on Route 29 currently. Elm is still back in New Bark Town." Haruka finally answered. Cyndaquil frowned.

"Well this is certainly unpleasant." It muttered, before it sighed. "Well, I may not want to be your Pokemon, but it will have to do for now. At least until we get back to New Bark Town. My name is Byrn, for your information, so no bad nicknames, okay?" Haruka visably deflated.

"Aww, man. I wanted to call you Cinders." Haruka whined, while Byrn sweatdropped. "Well, it sucks that I can't name you, but oh well. Can't have your cake and eat it too." Haruka said, pumping her fist into the air. Byrn sweatdropped again, not understanding the figure of speech.

"Uh...Anyways, Haruko, was it?"

"Haruka. Haruka Leaf." Haruka corrected. The Cyndaquil nodded.

"Right. So, shall we head to whatever town we intend to head to next?" Haruka nodded in agreement."But we'll have to give you a bit of training before that!" Haruka cried. Byrn's eyebrow twitched.

Train? What the hell? The Cyndaquil sighed. _I guess that's what a Pokemon that has a Trainer does._ He thought, as he followed behind the enthusiastic marching of his new Trainer. Eventually, they ran into a Rattata. Haruka quickly pulled her Pokedex out of her pocket and looked up data for the mouse Pokemon.

_"Rattata, the swirft mouse Pokemon. It is cautious in the extreme, its hardy vitality lets it live in any type of enviornment."_ - The black Pokedex spoke in a female voice. Haruka nodded enthusiastically.

"All right, Byrn, use a Tackle attack!" Haruka cried, pointing her finger at the Rattata. The Cyndaquil sighed.

"You have got to be kidding me." He muttered, before charging at the purple mouse. The purple mouse lived up to its 'cautious in the extreme' reputation, by dodging the blue mouse and striking with a Tackle of its own. The attack sent Byrn back a few feet, and he shook his head before dashing foward and striking with another Tackle. This one struck, and it was now the Rattata's turn to be thrown back a few feet. Unluckily for it, however, it wound up hitting a tree and knocked itself out.

"Wow! That was amazing, Byrn!" Haruka cried, jumping up and down. Byrn raised an eyebrow, but kept quiet. They walked along the path that had been carved by other Pokemon Trainers from New Bark Town, and spotted a Sentret in the middle of the path, an angry look fixed on its face. The scout Pokemon dashed up to Byrn and Tackled him. Byrn was thrown backwards, and barely landed on his feet.

"What was that for? I did nothing to you!" Byrn cried. The Sentret frowned even more, and attacked Byrn again. Byrn saw the attack coming this time, and jumped into the air out of harm's way, before Headbutting the Sentret's back. The Sentret Growled, and Byrn felt a bit scared, and was more wary to attack. Meanwhile Haruka pulled out her Pokedex from her pocket once more and searched for the Sentret's data.

_"Sentret, the Scout Pokemon. It has a very nervous nature. it stands up high on its tail to scan wide areas."_ - The Pokedex spoke. Haruka frowned. But why was this Sentret attacking?

"Alright, Byrn, Tackle that Sentret!" Haruka cried out. Byrn nodded, and charged at the Sentret. The Sentret hit the ground hard. It had fainted. "I wonder why that Sentret attacked us?" Haruka wondered aloud. A few seconds after she did so, a few tiny Sentrets popped out of the bushes and surrounded the larger, now unconcious, Sentret. "Oops." Haruka scratched the back of her head as the baby Pokemon surrounded the two.

"I knew this would be trouble." Byrn muttered. "RUN AWAY!!" The two threw up their paws and ran down the path. The baby Pokemon were too slow to catch up. Eventually, they stopped running. They walked down the path until they saw an injured Chikorita out cold in the middle of the path. Haruka dashed up to it.

"It's injured! We have to take it to the nearest Pokemon Center!" Haruka cried as she searched her bag for Pokeballs that she was sure she had seen in there previously. It was a good thing that Scientist had put so many supplies in the bag. She finally found one, and tapped the Chikorita on the head with the red and white orb, sucking it into the ball. Haruka shrunk the ball and placed it on the belt she had found inside the bag, and put the belt around her waist. She picked up Byrn, who complained a bit but settled down, and then dashed off down the road to the nearest PokeCenter.

_Chapter two. :3 The Chikorita seems a bit cliché...Fixed a bit of the dialouge since it didn't really fit..._


	4. Chikorita's Okay! Meeting Tsukasa!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Three:** Battle Tsukasa! Chikorita is Healed!

Haruka reached Cherrygrove, and ran quickly to the Pokemon Center. She saw the red roof, and rushed to it, bumping a few people in the process, most of which yelled at her. Haruka thought that the doors were those sliding ones that stores usually had, and as punishment for her mistake, ran straight into the door. She rubbed her head, and shoved the door open.

"Hey, I have a hurt Chikorita!" Haruka cried. All the Trainers in the building looked at her, and Haruka felt her face heat up. She walked up to the desk, and filled out the sheet. Minutes later, a Chansey came out with a stretcher, and Haruka took the injured Chikorita out of its Pokeball and placed it on the stretcher. The Chansey then rolled the stretcher into a hospital room, and Haruka went to sit over in a chair to wait for the Chikorita to come out.

As Haruka waited, she heard the Police sirens, and went over to the window to check out what had happened. Officer Jenny was talking to some Scientists, and one of them looked very familar. Haruka walked outside, and over to Officer Jenny.

"Ummm...Miss?" Officer Jenny turned to Haruka. Haruka scratched the back of her head.

"Uh, what's going on?" She asked. Jenny smiled.

"It's nothing, really. Some Pokemon just got stolen from Professor Elm's lab over in New Bark Town." Officer Jenny explained. Haruka gasped.

"That's _nothing_? Some Pokemon get stolen and you say its _nothing_?! What's wrong with you?" Haruka cried angrily. Officer Jenny frowned.

"Hey now! This kind of thing happens all the time, so you'd better just hold your horses and calm down! We're working on the case as we speak! The Scientists over here were just explaining what he looked like!" Jenny yelled back, pointing at the Scientists. Behind them were flying type Pokemon like Skarmory and Staraptor. Haruka frowned.

"Yeah, whatever." Haruka turned and headed back inside the PokeCenter. A few hours later, Haruka was stretching and preparing to head into the room where the now healed Chikorita was resting. She walked into the room, and the Chikorita tackled her. She fell to the ground. Haruka looked at the Chikorita with a stern look, before realizing that it was happily nudging her arm. Haruka got up and picked the small Grass Pokemon up. Nurse Joy walked over from the other side of the Pokemon bed, smiling.

"It seems that the Chikorita seems grateful you saved it." Haruka nodded in agreement, before getting an idea.

"Hey, Chikorita! Wanna come with us on our journey?" The Chikorita nodded, and Haruka grinned. She placed the Grass Pokemon on the ground as she looked for her translator. She found a black one, and placed it on the Chikorita's neck. "Great! Now, you want me to name you, or do you want to keep your old name?" The Chikorita smiled.

"I have a name. It's Feuille. I'd like to keep it, really." Haruka nodded in understanding.

"Okay!" Then Haruka remembered something. "Oh crap!" Nurse Joy and Feuille looked at Haruka in confusion.

"What is it?" Nurse Joy asked, frowning in concern.

"I forgot to tell my Mom I was leaving! I gotta go back and tell her!" Nurse Joy smiled at her forgetfulness.

"Well, you'd better go tell her." Nurse Joy handed Haruka Feuille's Pokeball. Haruka nodded.

"Thank you. Well, I'd better get going. See you, hopefully!" She picked up Feuille and dashed out the door. Nurse Joy had a small mile on her face after Haruka had left.

"Haruka. Distant. Or maybe distance. Perhaps she will travel a great distance with her Pokemon." Nurse Joy muttered to herself before preparing for the next patient.

As Haruka ran down the road to Route 29, she bumped into someone. She took a step back, and saw that she had run into a young boy about her age. He had red hair that was shoulder length, and was wearing a yellow and black jacket with black shorts.

"Oh, man! I'm sorry!" Haruka apologized. The boy frowned, crossing his arms.

"Just shut up and battle me." Haruka looked at him with confusion.

"Huh?" The boy sighed irritatedly.

"My name is Tsukasa Kurogane, and I wish to battle you." Haruka's mouth formed an 'O', before she reached for her belt for a Pokeball. Tsukasa raised an eyebrow. "Why not fight with the one you have right there?" he asked.

"Feuille just came from the PokeCenter and isn't trained. Byrn, however, is trained. Even if it is just a little bit." She grabbed Byrn's Pokeball, smirking. "Let's go! Come on out, Byrn!" She tossed Byrn's Pokeball into the air, and it exploded. A stream of red light fell to the ground and took the shape of Haruka's Cyndaquil. Tsukasa smirked as well and threw out a Pokeball of his own after he had distanced himself. The red light formed a shape of a blue crocodile. The Totodile had a large grin on its face.

"Dile. To to dile!" It croaked. Haruka frowned, but then grinned.

"A Cyndaquil veruses a Totodile. This should be interesting." Tsukasa nodded.

"Jet, use Tackle!" Jet just looked at him like he was stupid. Haruka laughed, and Tsukasa glared at her.

"Totodile learn Scratch, not Tackle. Unforunately for you, however, Cyndaquil does learn that move! Byrn, use tackle!" Byrn nodded, and charged at the Totodile.

"Jump!" Jet did so, but Byrn followed and slammed into the crocodile Pokemon. It wasn't as strong as it would of been if it had hit when the Totodile had been standing still, but it was still effective. Jet landed on the ground, and so did byrn. Jet whined in pain.

"Tackle it again, Byrn!" Byrn slammed his head into the Totodile's stomach, which must of hurt like hell. Jet flew back a few feet from the impact.

"Use Leer, then follow up with a Scratch attack!" Jet nodded, and glared at Byrn. Byrn frozze for a few seconds, but snapped out of it. Unfortunately, that was just enough time for Jet to charge and attack the mouse with its claws. Byrn cried out in pain.

"Use Smokescreen, Byrn! Then follow up with a Tackle!" Haruka cried out. Byrn shook off the pain and took a deep breath of air before letting out a foul smelling smoke that clouded over the air and hung there. Tsukasa realized what was going to happen.

"Damn! Jet, get out of the way! Move! Move!" He cried just as Byrn started to charge at the smoke. It came a bit too late, however, and the crocodile flew out of the smoke as Byrn rammed into him. Jet landed on the ground roughly, and the smoke started to clear. On the ground was the Totodile, out cold. Tsukasa swore again, and ran up to the Pokemon. He muttered a few words, and then glared at Haruka.

"You! When did you start your Pokemon journey?!" He shouted angrily. Haruka took a step back before answering.

"Today! I started today!" The Trainer across from her grit his teeth and swore.

"Well, I started today as well." His shoulders slumped, and he looked up at Haruka."Um, so...Can I come with you? I grew up in an orphanage after my parents died, and, well...They didn't teach me very much about Pokemon." He looked down at his Totodile."C-could you teach me more about Pokemon? I hardly know anything." Haruka blinked. Wow. That was unexpected. Haruka's face had a small thoughtful frown on it. Then she grinned.

"Okay then! You can come with me! It'd be lonely with just three people, after all! I just need to head back to New Bark Town to tell my Mom I'm leaving because I forgot to tell her." Tsukasa had a shocked and scared look on his face, but it was quickly replaced with determination.

"Fine. I'll wait here and heal my Pokemon at the Pokemon Center until you get back!" Haruka nodded.

"Okay then! It's settled!" Haruka replied, grinning. Tsukasa smiled a bit.

"Right. We'll, you'd better start off. I'll be at either the PokeCenter or the PokeMart." Tsukasa said as he started walking towards the Pokemon Center. Haruka's grin grew wider.

"You betcha!" She returned Byrn to his Pokeball, and then returned Feuille to her Pokeball. But she didn't notice the worried look on Feuille's face as she did so. Haruka started running to New Bark Town, eager to tell her Mom and start her journey offically.

_If that's what her journey is like, I'm not sure I want to do this anymore..._Feuille thought inside the Pokeball World.

_Feuille is a bit scared of fighting, espically since she was just found injured on the side of the road._


	5. Return to New Bark! Tsukasa's a Thief?

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Four:** Back to the Lab! What? Tsukasa's a Thief? Oh No!

Haruka dashed to her home town. Despite popular belief, it was actually quite a long run from Cherrygrove to New Bark. And Haruka was learning this the hard way. Haruka jumped over a ledge and scared a few Murkrow as she ran past. She ran up a small hill and through some grass, over a ledge and into a small forest. Jump over another ledge, through some grass, dodge some tree branches. Woops...Aww, craptastic. Haruka had just ran into a Beedrill, and boy did it look angry. Haruka screamed and started to run away. She ran around the Beedrill and right through the Beedrill's nest. The Beedrill weren't too happy about that and chased after the younger Trainer.

Haruka ran through the forest, trying to avoid getting stung by the psychotic bee Pokemon that everyone feared. Finally she got out of the forest and saw a familar path. She ran down the path and over a few ledges before she finally made it to New Bark Town. Unfortunately, the bee Pokemon were still following her. She didn't wan to bring the horde of Pokemon to her front doorstep, so she settled for the lab, no matter how creepy it was. And since it was now pretty dark out, the lab would be even creepier. But Haruka ran to the lab anyways.

She jerked the door open, which was surprisingly still unlocked, and ran inside. She slammed the door shut and placed her back aginst it, trying to hold back the Beedrill as they pounded on the door. Craptastic. Eventually the Beedrill stopped hitting the door and went away. Haruka breathed a sigh of relief and slumped on the ground, sliding on the door. A Scientist ran out, and boy did he look angry.

"Who the hell are you, and why are you here?" He yelled. Haruka froze. Royal crappage. This was not good. Haruka laughed nervously.

"Well, I ran into some Beedrill and I didn't want them to go to my house, so I went here." The Scientist gaped at her before he regained his composure and shook his head.

"Very well. I might as well take you to se Elm." Haruka froze at the Professor's name for a second, before forcing herself up. She held her hands out in front of her and laughed nervously.

"No, I don't think that's necessary." Haruka said, grinning awkwardly. The Scientist shook his head and adjusted his glasses.

"Nonsense, child. We'll see Elm, and you can leave. By then the Beedrill will definitely be long gone." Haruka laughed nervously again.

"No, really. We don't need--" She didn't finish because the Scientist had grabbed her arm and was now pulling the new Trainer. Haruka spotted the cages that lined the sides of the wall and went limp. What would happen if this was an evil man and he intended to lock her up like those poor Pokemon and experiment on her? Haruka shuddered at the thought. She was dragged through all the same things she had seen earlier that day. The pink haired creature was still there, and the creatures in the glass containers were still there as well. Haruka was dropped in front of the same door as before. The Scientist knocked on the door.

"Enter." The voice of the Professor boomed. Haruka grimaced as the Scientist opened the door. They walked inside, and Elm's face lit up.

"Ah. Haruka Leaf, was it not?" Elm asked. Haruka nodded grimly. The old professor gave a creepy grin."Well then, I have a question to ask you." Haruka raised an eyebrow curiously. What could they want with her? What could he possibly ask her? "Haruka, by any chance did you see a young red haired male with a Totodile any time today?" Haruka's face lit up. Totodile? Red hair? Haruka nodded. Elm smirked and motioned to the man next to him. It looked like a Police Officer.

"Hi. I'm here working on the missing Pokemon case. So you saw the suspect?" The officer asked. Haruka looked at the officer in confusion.

"Missing Pokemon? Suspect? What are we talking about here?"

"A Pokemon was stolen earlier today. We're looking for clues." Haruka frowned. Was Tsukasa a criminal?

"Well, I did battle a boy with shoulder length red hair who happened to have a Totodile." Elm gave a small smile.

"You battled him? How did you do?" Haruka scratched the back of her head nervously.

"I...won..." The Professor gave a full out grin. The officer however kept a stern look.

"Did he say anyhing in particular?" He asked. Haruka frowned. She didn't like this...

"Well, he said he just became a Trainer today and..."

"And what?" The officer questioned, frowning.

"He asked if I would travel with him and tach him about Pokemon after I beat him. I agreed." The officer smirked.

"Very well then. We shall use this to our advantage. We'll use the promise of your traveling with him to capture him and send him to prison." Haruka's shock was evident.

"What? You can't do that!" Haruka shouted.

"As a matter of fact, kiddo, we can. Pokemon are property, and this was theft." Haruka's eyes widened and then narrowed. She glared at the officer, who was smirking.

"You..You're no better than those damn Rockets!" Haruka clenched her fist and brought it back before slugging the officer in the face. The officer grunted and took a few steps back. He rubbed his cheek and glared at the yound Trainer.

"Assaulting an officer, eh? I'll have to write you up for that." He muttered. Haruka glared at him.

"Officer? Feh. You may be an officer, but you're corrupt. You don't deserve to be an officer. Anyone who says that Pokemon are property needs a good kick in the ass." Haruka growled, glaring at the officer. The officer shrunk back a bit, while Elm rubbed his temple.

"Language." Haruka turned on Elm.

"And you! How could you do such a thing to Pokemon? Pokemon have rights too! You might as well be the one in those cages, you bastard!" Elm stared at her before chuckling. The Scientist just stood there awkwardly, while the officer got up.

"You will make a fine Pokemon Trainer, Haruka." The professor turned to the officer. "Very well. You, Officer Hertez, will stay here until Shigure here has dialed the Police for your arrest." Elm turned back to Haruka, who had a shocked look on her face. "I have an assignment for you. Actaully, I have a few. Firstly, tell the Officers in Cherrygrove that the Trainer can keep the Pokemon, and give him a bag." Elm turned to a door behind the desk and opened it. He walked inside and disapeared. After a few seconds, he walked out holding a bag similar to Haruka's. He handed the bag to Haruka. "Give him this. Secondly, my friend Mr. Pokemon has been reporting that Pokemon have been leaving eggs randomly around his home. I want you and your traveling partner to bring me all the eggs. That is all." Haruka nodded, and took the bag."I suppose you know your way out?" Elm asked. Haruka nodded again and opened the door. She walked out and headed towards the enterance of the building. She walked out the door and headed next door to her home. There wasn't a single Beedrill in sight.

She opened the door and took a step into the door before she was tackled by her Mom.

"Oh, Haruka! I was so worried! You didn't tell me you were leaving!" Haruka laughed nervously, and it came out muffled.

"Yeah. Sorry, Mum. I am leaving." Harukas Mom's arms left her child. Haruka looked up at her Mom. She was grinning.

"I guess all kids leave some day." Mom's grin grew wider. "Y'know what, I have an idea. You send me money from your battles and I'll save your money for you." Haruka grinned.

"Sure! That'll help lots!" Mom's arms crushed Haruka in another hug.

"Oh, you grew up so fast! You'd better visit often!"

"Yes, Mum." Mom pinched Haruka's cheek.

"Now, you be nice to your Pokemon and win lots of battles, okay?"

"Yesh, Mhum." Mom let go of Haruka's cheek.

"Good, now go on. It's late and you want to get to the Pokemon Center in Cherrygrove before it shuts down! Go!" Mom pushed Haruka out the door."And don't forget, winning isn't everything! Just have fun!" Haruka nodded, and started walking towards Route 29.

"Okay, Mum! Bye!"

Haruka walked down Route 29 and into the forest. This time, however, she was extra careful about the Beedrill. After an hour of walking, she reached Cherrygrove, and not a minute too soon! Tsukasa was being led out of the PokeCenter in handcuffs by Officer Jenny! Haruka ran over to the Officer.

"Oi! No! Don't do that!" The officer looked over at Haruka.

"Weren't you the one who was complaining earlier?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips angrily. Haruka frowned.

"Yeah, but I just visited Elm! He said to drop all charges and let Tsukasa go! And that he could keep the Pokemon!" Officer Jenny's eyes widened.

"Really?" She asked. Haruka nodded.

"Yeah! Elm told me to bring this bag to Tsukasa! You can check it!" Jenny sighed, and uncuffed Tsukasa.

"Well, looks like you're free, kid. Be grateful Elm is such a nice guy." Jenny walked over to her motercycle and rode off. Tsukasa looked over at Haruka.

"Did he really say that?" He asked.

"Yes. And you're still my travel partner. But no more kidnapping Pokemon, okay?" Haruka said, nodding. Tsukasa grinned.

"Of course. So, where are we headed to next?" He asked.

"First, we get some sleep at the PokeCenter. And tomorrow, we head out to Mr. Pokemon's house." Haruka explained. Tsukasa blinked.

"Mr. Pokemon? What kind of a name is that?" Haruka shrugged.

"I dunno. C'mon, lets go get some rooms." Tsukasa nodded and followed the fellow Pokemon Trainer into the Center.

_Damn there were a lot of errors in this. xD This is fun, seeing how Haruka reacted. I think I had a problem with run-on sentences and abusing the comma. Must try to fix that. xD_


	6. Realization! To Mr Pokemon's House!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Five:** To Mr. Pokemon's House!

_"Oi, Yochi...Do you really think this is such a good idea?"_

_"Of course. I can get first hand information like this. And I'll be able to see how far the terror of Black Death has spread from Sinnoh to Johto...Like a fanfiction's reviews..."_

_"Well, it's not like I can stop you or anything. Your fighting types would kill my babies."_

_"I don't have any fighting types."_

_"You have one. But your ground types will enilate my precious darklings anyways."_

_"Darklings isn't a word..."_

_"What's your point?"_

_"Duister, go find my Skitty."_

_"Yes ma'am..."_

Haruka and Tsukasa walked down the route road. It had been roughly an hour since they had left Cherrygrove, and the two newbie Trainers were not use to the torture they were putting their feet through. This caused much whining from Haruka, who was quieted by Tsukasa. The area they were in at the moment was filled with trees that lined the road, as well as knee-high grass and random bushes. A few Pokemon were out hunting earlier that day, so there were dead bodies or Rattata and other less fortunate Pokemon along the road.

Seeing as Haruka didn't think that they should stay at the PokeCenter, it was currently night time and Hoothoot and Spinarak were all around.

"Who's bright idea was it for to head out this late at night?" Haruka whined as she yawned and stretched. Tsukasa's nose twitched in a bit of irritance. This had been the Trainer he had asked to help him? Great...

"It was your idea, dumbass." Tsukasa answered, sticking his hands into his pockets. Haruka frowned, realizing he was right.

"Aww, shuddup! I didn't really want to stay in Cherrygrove, and it was pretty late at night, so I wasn't thinking right."

"It's still night, smart one."

"Shuddup! Geez, you don't have to be such an ass."

"Then can you stop talking?" Tsukasa scratched his head. It was late out, and they'd been walking for a petty long time. Haruka crossed her arms, pouting.

"Fine! Death by silence for you, then!" The walk was silent up until they spotted a small house on the side of the road. A large Oran Berry tree was next to it. Haruka's face brightened. "Hey, do you think that that's Mr. Pokemon's house?" Haruka asked. Tsukasa shook his head, and check the map on his PokeGear that had been in the bag that Elm had indirectly given him.

"We're still in Route Thirty, and you said that his house was in Route Thirty One. We still have a bit to go before we reach that Route." Haruka frowned at Tsukasa's response, and checked her PokeGear as well.

"Seems like you're right. We'd better hurry this up, or by the time we reach New Bark Town again it'll be nearly two am!" Tsukasa nodded in agreement.

"It took you about an hour to get to New Bark, and another hour to get back. Then there was the amount of time you used up talking with Elm. And we spent an hour coming this far, and it might take another hour getting to Mr. Pokemon's house," Tsukasa calculated before he continued."That's about five hours since sun down, which was at six. Then we have the two hours back tracking, not including the time it'll take to talk with Mr. Pokemon, and then the final stretch between Cherrygrove and Elm's." Tsukasa sighed."Then we'll have to walk back to Cherrygrove, which'll take another hour. And if we head to Violet exactly after we reach Cherrygrove, in total we'll have spent ten hours on just purely walking back and forth. The best we can shoot for is four am." Haruka crossed her arms unhappily as Tsukasa sighed once again.

"This is complicating. And tiring. We might pass out in between Routes, which won't be good. Not to mention the fact that I haven't really eaten anything for a good amount of time..." Haruka's stomach growled quietly as she thought of food. She hadn't even eaten supper...Tsukasa nodded in agreement.

"We might have to stop at a shop in between the trips back and forth and grab some food."

"But who would be open at this time of night?" Haruka asked.

"Taco Bell?" Tsukasa tried. He really hadn't thought of that..Man, this stuff was complicated...

"They close at one...But that house has a berry tree, so we could grab a few and eat them."

"That'd be stealing, though." Haruka looked at Tsukasa with a disbelieving look.

"This is coming from the guy I had to bail for taking a Pokemon away from the lab. I really don't think you have anything to say." Tsukasa's eye twitched as he realized that was correct. "Besides, we need food or we'll die. Surely they won't be that stingy if we take a few so we don't get ourselves killed." Tsukasa took this into consideration. He closed his eyes and sighed when he reached a conclusion.

"We might as well." The two newbie Trainers walked over to the Oran Berry tree and picked a few a few decent sized Oran berries before they set off for Route Thirty One, eating the freshly picked Oran Berries.

A half hour later, they had reached a bit of a problem. There was a a large Spinarak web covering the entire way. They couldn't go around it because it seemed that it was there to block the path and keep anyone from going further. Tsukasa turned to Haruka, an idea in his head.

"Your Cydnaquil is a fire type, right?" Haruka nodded, not getting the point. "Well, it should be able to burn this webbing, which will give us a clean path through and we'll be able to get to Mr. Pokemon's house." Haruka grinned, now understanding Tsukasa's plan. She took Byrn's Pokeball off her belt and pressed the button to enlarge it and send the fire mouse out. The fire mouse did appear, and he yawned. He blinked and took a look around before he noticed the large white web.

"Holy Magikarp! That's a big web!" Byrn exclaimed, before turning to Haruka."You want me to burn it, right?" Haruka nodded, and Byrn took a deep breath before unleashing a small fire on his back and breathing scorching flames from his mouth. The web caught on fire and started to disappear, but it also started to spread. Tsukasa hurriedly sent out his Totodile and ordered a Water Gun to douse the flames. Tsukasa had been training while Haruka had been gone, it seemed.

The two beginer Trainers picked up their Pokemon and ran through the opening before the Spinarak noticed the burning. Five minutes of running and five minutes of walking later, they had arrived at a house. And like Elm had said, it was surrounded by Pokemon Eggs. They each had a different design on them, but they all had a small ring of pale yellow right at the middle. What was in those eggs?


	7. Pokemon, Oak, and Eggs!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Six:** Pokemon, Oak, and Eggs!

Tsukasa walked over to an egg and picked one up carefully, examining it.

"This is what Elm sent us to get? They seem like ordinary eggs, to me." Tsukasa wondered aloud. Haruka nodded. Why were these eggs so special? It may just be that a swarm of Pokemon passed by and left the eggs. But then why do more appear, and why only around this selective house? Haruka frowned, and Tsukasa put the egg back on the ground and looked at Haruka."We'd better go inside. It is about twelve am, and if we loiter around much longer, we'll lose the time that running from the Spinarak web had given us." Haruka nodded in agreement, and the two newbie Trainers walked through the lawn of eggs to the front door, the two Pokemon following.

The knocked on the door and waited a few minutes before the door was opened. A man in his late fourties stood at the door, wearing ordinary clothes with a fancy hat. Interesting combination...

"Who are you and why are you here at this hour?" The man asked suspicously.

"Um, we're the Trainers that Elm sent to gather information on the eggs and bring a few specimens back, sir." Haruka answered. The man looked from Haruka to Tsukasa, and back to Haruka again before nodding and inviting the two Trainers in. They followed the man into a room on the right side of the hallway. Inside the room was a desk with a computer and chair that was occupied, a few bookshelves filled to the brim with books, a few random potted plants, and a couch. The man told them to sit down on the couch, and they did so hesitantly.

"Now, I suppose you are Haruka, miss?" The man asked, and Haruka nodded."Very well then. I had hoped it wasn't the lad."He said in response to the nod, chuckling. Haruka gave a small laugh in nervousness, while Tsukasa glared at him. The man's face became serious, while the person on the computer kept typing away.

"Let's get down to buissiness, shall we? My name is Mr. Pokemon, and I am a friend of Elm's as well as a research partner. These eggs keep popping up during the night with no sign of any Pokemon appearing previously, and it's bothering me. Even the bird Pokemon have stopped flying overhead. You didn't hear a single Hoothoot, did you?" Mr. Pokemon asked. Now that they had to think about it, the quiet of the road was a bit too quiet. The two Trainers nodded. The Pokemon on their laps shifted uneasily. Mr. Pokemon frowned and sighed."Yes, it's been like that every day after the first set of eggs appeared, which was roughly three weeks ago." So no Pokemon had shown up for three weeks? That was odd. Mr. Pokemon motioned to the person at the computer.

"Gary Oak was the first one I contacted. He knew much about Pokemon from being a Trainer back in his younger years." Haruka's mouth dropped. Gary Oak? As in the grandson of Professer Oak? "He was the only person besides you two to visit me during this time. He arrived two weeks ago from Kanto, and he noticed the Spinarak web, which I am sure you both noticed as well since you have your Pokemon out." The two Trainers continued to listen to the man, until Gary stood up and stretched.

"Well, since Elm sent you two, I suppose you can help us with some research then?" Gary spoke for the first time. The two Trainers nodded."By the way, how is Elm? I haven't seen him in ages." Tsukasa looked at Haruka, knowing she'd have to answer since he had not met the man. He had just simply broke into his office and kidnapped a Pokemon. Haruka swallowed.

"Well, to tell you the truth...He seems a bit insane." Haruka replied, laughing nervously. Gary nodded sadly.

"Yeah, I went to his lab last year. Terrifying, that lab of his. Hasn't been the same since my Grandpa died."Gary's eyes then shifted from saddness to eagerness to work. He motioned to the computer."This is all the data I have achieved from the eggs. It isn't much, but it is at least a bit. Come see." Byrn got off of Haruka's lap, as did Jet off of Tsukasa's. The two Trainers looked at the moniter. Not very much? Hah! They guy had filled up a whole bunch of space on Wordpad. Haruka read the first few lines, before deciding that skimming it would be faster and not as hellish for her eyes, since the man had appearently not used the Enter key. Tsukasa didn't ever bother to read it, and just deemed it as EyeHell.

"Well, what do you think?" Gary asked.

"I think you need to use the Enter key. This is murder on my eyes..."Tsukasa replied, and Gary gave him an irritated look. Haruka sighed and looked up from the Wordpad of hell.

"Well...Aside from the problem that Tsukasa mentioned, it seems like you have a very good theory. But what exactly are these Scathe type Pokemon you mentioned?" Haruka asked, tilting her head to the side. Gary cleared his throat before he started to explain.

"Have you ever heard of the MissingNo Pokemon?"He asked. Haruka and Tsukasa nodded. "After extensive research and the capture of a few other unidentified Pokemon by my old rival, Satoshi, we realized that there are a few more types of Pokemon than the original seventeen. In fact, if you count the supposed 'Legend' type that includes all the Pokemon from mythology, there are about twenty types of Pokemon." Tsukasa frowned, crossing his arms.

"I thought there were only eighteen if you included the 'Legend' type."

"Yes, there were. But then two new types of Pokemon were discovered, but were not released to the media due to the fact that they had summoned sort of robotic Mew clone and killed Satoshi. There are the Scathe type, as dubbed by the Pokemon, and the Sacred type, which we have renamed as the Light type."Gary explained, then he shook his head. "Anyways, we will need you to take some eggs to Elm for further research." He glanced at the clock on the wall, and every else followed his eyes. Tsukasa blinked, and then swore mentally. It was two in the morning! This explaination had taken up too much time.

"We'll have to gather the eggs and leave, Mr. Oak, Mr. Pokemon. We're kind of on a tight schedule." Tsukasa said. The two researchers nodded. Then a look of rememberance crossed Gary's face, and he walked over to a bag on the floor. He opened it and pulled out a Pokeball and an egg. He handed the egg to Haruka and the Pokeball to Tsukasa. The two Trainers looked at their hands in confusion.

"I had intended to bring these to Elm myself, but since you're making a trip over their yourselves I'll leave the task to you two." Gary yawned. "You two'd better start out, or you two won't get a wink of sleep." The two Trainers looked at each other and grinned. They knew that three hours ago. Jet and Byrn hopped off the couch and followed the two Trainers as they walked outside. Mr. Pokemon gave them a few bags, and they started to pick up the eggs that were on the ground.

_The Scathe and Sacred type Pokémon really make their debute in the Sinnoh arc. There will be a few appearances by them before that, however. :D Actually, "Bad Eggs" on my original account was the Scathe children hatching out of the eggs and killing Elm's lab assistants._


	8. Rebel Raft! Hi Ho Cherrygrove!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Seven:** Rebel Raft! High ho, Cherrygrove!

The two Trainers walked down the road to Cherrygrove carrying the eggs with care. Even the Pokemon carried a few eggs, Feuille carrying more than the rest with her vines. The only sound came from the three Pokemon, since all the Pokemon in the Route that Mr. Pokemon's house was on had mysteriously up and left. Jet had gotten a translator, thanks to the crazy Professor Elm. The egg that Gary had given Haruka was cradled in a knapsack that Mr. Pokemon had given them as he handed them the bags to carry the eggs in, while the Pokeball that Gary had given Tsukasa was currently on his belt, taking up one more space on his almost empty Pokeball belt.

Haruka looked up at the stars. Yeah, she had grown up in a pretty small town. Yet the Lab next door to Haruka's house had always prevented her from going outside at night, for fear that she might be the next hopeless creaure trapped and tortured in a cage that everyone on the outside world ignored. Being in the lab, seeing what was going on inside...It didn't help the fear of being outside at night much, but she was three hours walking distance from the lab, and she had allies. Being outside, far from home...It kind of made her a bit homesick, but she still smiled. She wouldn't be able to meet people if she always feared the lab, nor would she be able to see the stars. They were really pretty, the stars.

Eventually they reached the Spinarak web. It did have a Spinarak on it, and it looked annoyed at the travelers, mainly because they intended to wreck its freshly made repairs. But the hole wasn't fully repaired yet. Jet gave the Spinarak a toothy grin, before blasting it with a jet of water. The Spinarak shook itself off and crawled away, obviously just wanting them to get through so it could get back to work on repairing the damages they had caused on their way into the lair.

A while later, they spotted the house, marking the half way point. As they walked by the house, they spotted a band of Water type Pokemon. There were Wooper, Mudkip, Piplup, Staryu, and a few other random Water type Pokemon in a good mass of about fifteen Pokemon. But what seemed to be the leader was a Totodile. It had a scar on its chest area, and was holding a blue orb that gave off a great deal of light. The Pokemon seemed to be robbing the Oran Berry tree. And they weren't just taking a few to survive and stuff, they were attempting to take all the fruit on the tree!

"Oi, what're you doing?" Byrn shouted over to them. The Water Pokemon stopped what they were doing and spotted the Trainers and their Pokemon companions. The Totodile pointed in the direction of the Trainers and said something to the Water pokemon. They placed the berries on the ground, and charged at the Trainers. Feuille placed the eggs on the ground quickly, and used the vines to hold a few from striking. She picked a few of the up from the ground and threw them at a random tree to the south.

The Totodile leader frowned, and ran up to the Grass type Pokemon before blasting it with a jet of water. Feuille was pushed back a couple of feet, and had to releash her hold on the other Water type Pokemon. After the blast stopped, Feuille raised her leaf and shot out minature leaves from the leaf on her head. Jet put down the eggs he was holding, as did Byrn. Jet charged at the Pokemon, blasting them with Water Gun attacks and using Scratch. Byrn used Tackle, and a few were knocked out as they were thrown against trees and other Pokemon. Byrn got hit with a few Water type techniques and sustained a good deal of damage.

Tsukasa pulled out the Pokeball on his belt, enlarged it, and threw it into the air. Now was a good of a time as any to check out whatever the hell was inside the ball. Not to mention the fact that the three Pokemon were highly outnumbered. The red light took the shape of an unidentified creature. It was about the size of Haruka, with it had two horns on its head, and a muzzle like a Totodile's. It had thick, black, and leathery wings and attached to the wings were a set of hands. It had thick black legs that looked sturdy and claws that came out of its feet. Its body was similar to a Scyther's, and a long black and white tail. It growled ferociously, saying its name over and over like Pokemon do. It looked at the Water type Pokemon that were staring at it, as well as the Chikorita and Cyndaquil. It looked back and saw Tsukasa holding its Pokeball.

Jet explained the situation to the strange Pokemon, and it nodded as it understood the situation. It flapped its wings and flew above the Water type Pokemon, hitting them with a black powder that fell from its wings. Most of the Water Pokemon started twitching, and they fell to the ground, unable to control their unexplained twitching. The creature landed on the ground, and Feuille started taking out the Water Pokemon still standing. The Totodile avoided most of the attacks Feuille threw at it, and got close enough to the Chikorita to hit it with a Headbutt. Feuille was thrown back, and Haruka swore mentally.

Haruka grabbed an unoccupied Pokeball from her belt, and threw it at the Totodile. It was sucked into the ball, and it fell to the ground and started twitching like the Pokemon. It moved back and forth for a few seconds before it went 'ping' and stopped moving. Haruka stared dumbly at the Pokeball.

"Wow, I didn't think that that'd actually work." She muttered to herself as she walked over to pick the Pokeball up. She picked the ball up as Tsukasa recalled the odd creature that had been contained in the Pokeball. Tsukasa stared at the Pokeball, wondering what exactly that thing was and what that black powder was. The Pokemon that had been twitching previously stopped and were still, drool seeping from their mouths. If they had a mouth, that is. Whatever that thing was...it was strong. And it had said that its creature name was Shadure. Haruka walked over to Byrn and Feuille, and Potion in hand. She sprayed the fluid medicine on the two Pokemon, and their wounds healed.

Haruka glanced over at Tsukasa, who was still staring at the Pokeball, and was hit with a plan. She grinned.

"Oi, Tsukasa!" Tsukasa tore his gaze from the red and white orb and looked at Haruka, who was grinning widely."Send that thing back out, why don't you? It can help us carry the eggs to Elm's!" Tsukasa frowned, and looked at the Pokeball with uncertainty. Finally, he decided it couldn't hurt to try to learn a bit more about the creature and he pressed the button on the ball. The light once again took the creaure's form, and it looked around once more, this time with irritance.

"Sha sha dure? Shadure! Sha sha dure dure sha!" It muttered angrily. Haruka and Tsukasa didn't know what it was saying, so they settled on just telling it what they needed it to do. The Pokemon picked up the eggs with irritance, and the other Pokemon were sucked into their Pokeballs. The three allies then started on their journey to Cherrygrove.

An hour later, they had reached Cherrygrove. Haruka and Tsukasa's face brightened, glad to see civilaztion after been stuck outside in the wilderness for a good eight hours. The Pokemon looked at the town with nervousness, and suddenly wished he hadn't agreed to carry the eggs.

_:D Told you they'd make an appearance before then! Shadure is epic. :D I might have Elm give Shadure back to Tsukasa at a later point in time._


	9. Tsukasa's Fear! Bad Eggs or Just Scathe?

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Eight:** Tsukasa's Fear! Bad Eggs, or Just Scathe Eggs?

_"Oi, Yochi...When exactly do you intend to head out for Violet?"_

_"Day after tomorrow."_

_"...Irony is a bitch..."_

_"Not going to ask..."_

_"So, where'd you get the idea from?"_

_"Shaymin, of course."_

_"You still believe that you can speak to that hedgehog?"_

_"Yes, Tempidus, I do. If you have nothing better to do, head to Violet and check out the _

_Ruins for me why don't you?"_

_"And report back if I see any Legends or any odd specimens, correct?"_

_"Yup."_

_"Very well. I shall be going now."_

_"Good. And if you see Bellus, tell her to catch Skitty for me so I can take her with me."_

_"Will do."_

It was four in the morning. Haruka and Tsukasa had been up the whole night, traveling back and forth. They obtained some new information, which was a bit confusing yet good, as well as a new Pokemon. And then there was the Shadure. It stood behind Tsukasa, and like Tsukasa it did not want to go on.

"Why won't you go on to New Bark Town with me?" Haruka asked, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. Tsukasa sighed and looked down at the ground.

"I did kidnap Jet, remember." Haruka looked off to Route Twenty Nine. Just an hour's walk to go, and they'd be at Professor Elm's lab, giving him what he had asked for and promptly leaving the town to continue on with their journey. By then, it'd be dawn. The Pidgey around Cherrygrove were already starting to awaken. Haruka made a whining noise, before she sighed.

"You know I can't carry all this myself, and Shadure doesn't seem to want to come either. I know why you wouldn't want to go back there, but if you want to get to the pokemon Leauge we will eventually have to cross through New Bark Town once more. You'll have to get over it eventually. And besides, Elm wasn't even mad. He was just...Elm." Haruka replied, ready to get this over with and head on to Violet for a good rest."Besides that, if I attempt to carry all this myself we'll be even more behind schedule." Tsukasa's eyes widened. It was a long enough walk with two people and a Pokemon carrying the eggs. With those elements cut to bits, and only three Pokemon, one of which they didn't even know if it would help, it would take even longer. Tsukasa's eye twitched. Those damned odds...

Tsukasa sighed, and nodded. Haruka grinned, but that grin faded when she realized that there was a missing element. Shadure. Haruka and Tsukasa turned to look at the odd creature, and it started to sweat. It made odd noises that sounded like nervous chuckles. Tsukasa pulled out his Pokeball and sent out Jet. The crocodile Pokemon yawned, blinked a few times, and looked around. It was still night, which irritated the little crocodile.

"Ena, ena...Whaddya want?" Jet asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Jet gave a nervous glance at Shadure, but didn't say anything to the Pokemon. Haruka reached for her Pokeballs and released her Pokemon from the orbs. They loked around like Jet had, while the unamed Totodile glared at Haruka. Haruka chuckled nervously, and pulled out two translators. She put one on Shadure, who was unable to move very fast since his wings were attached to his hands and were cradling the eggs. Then she put one on the nameless Totodile, and got a nasty Water Gun into the face as a reward.

"Do we have to carry the eggs again?" Feuille asked, vines coming out of her neck. Haruka nodded.

"We'll have to since Shadure here doesn't seem to want to go on."Tsukasa replied, motioning to Shadure. Shadure cleared his throat.

"Wizard. My name is Wizard, not Shadure." The Shadure corrected.

"We'll remember that."

"I don't intend to stay long...but while we're discussing names, mine happens to be Raft." The previously nameless Totodile said, crossing his arms over his chest. Haruka nodded again, planning to remember the name. Wizard spoke once more.

"If it's not too much to ask, I'd like to go into the orb for a rest. But you'll have to take the eggs off for me, since I can't do it myself." Haruka, Tsukasa, and Feuille took the eggs out of Wizard's wings, and Tsukasa put Wizard back into his Pokeball. Haruka gave the eggs to the Pokemon, and a few more to Tsukasa, and kept the rest for herself. Now, being five in the morning, the Trainers and Pokemon set off to New Bark Town. Tsukasa and Raft were nervous, and kept getting even more and more nervous as they walked on. Tsukasa didn't want to go to jail, while Raft was afraid of the two Trainers. He glanced at the ever present blue orb that was tied to his back, and sighed. Raft never should of left Hoenn. At least there he would be protected, but now he was out of the barrier...That damned message to the other Legend was why he was out here in the first place.

A long hour later, they had reached New Bark Town, and the sun was coming out. Tsukasa was freaking out. He did not want to be in this town at all. Haruka had to reasure him serveral times that Elm did not want his blood, but five minutes later he would be freaking out once more. Haruka shoved the scared red-head into the lab. Haruka herself didn't like this place, but she had to put on a brave face.

The cages in the walls were filled with anguished Pokemon, and Haruka hurried the Pokemon and Tsukasa through the hellish rooms. The pink haired creature was still there. Raft was begining to distrust this Trainer more and more as they went down farther into the lab. Finally, they reached Elm's door. Haruka knocked, and the door swung open a few seconds later, the elderly Elm glaring out. Then he saw the eggs, and showed the team inside. He ordered them to place the eggs on a desk After that was done, he started counting the eggs. In total, they had brought about fifty eggs. Tsukasa gave Elm the Pokeball containing Wizard, and then returned to his spot by the door. He obviously wanted to get out of the place. Haruka also handed Elm the egg that Gary had given her. Elm sat down in his chair and cleared his throat.

"I suppose you are Haruka's traveling partner, am I correct?" Tsukasa nodded at Elm's question. "Then you were the one who stole my Totodile."Tsukasa started to sputter random nonsense, but Elm to him to shut up.

"I will not take Totodile back from you. He seems happy. Be thankful I am feeling nice." Tsukasa nodded, relief washing over him. Haruka was right. "Now, how did you two manage to obtain those eggs so fast?"

"Well, we kinda traveled during the whole night. Today we intend to head to Violet and then sleep there at the Pokemon Center." Haruka replied, scratching the back of her head and laughing nervously. Elm nodded.

"You two have amazing stamina, for beginner Trainers that is. Now, do you know anything at all about these eggs?" Haruka and Tsukasa nodded. Tsukasa, less nervous now, began to give out all the information he knew, with Haruka filling in the blanks. When they were done, Elm sluched against the back of his chair, sighing. "I can't believe it. So those eggs in the past may not of been bad eggs, just...a different type of Pokemon eggs. This is interesting. We use to find tons of eggs with these patterns, in swarms like the ones around Mr. Pokemon's. They would hatch numerous times with each egg, but nothing actually ever came out of them. We deemed them as 'bad eggs'. This will be good research material." Elm looked at the two Trainers and stood up.

"I think it's about time you two leave. Head to Violet as fast as possible. Over-exertion can kill Trainers." The six allies nodded, and headed out the door, ready to take on whatever faced them next.

_I really don't like the beginning dialouge. DX But I don't know how to change it without taking away too much of the original. I do change a bit of the dialouge and wording every so often to make it less confusing. Wizard is so epic. :D Raft...Raft is originally from Hoenn. Eventually he'll do what he was suppose to do, but with the way I have things planned out he's going to be waiting a long time. xD Hopefully he'll be less of an angry jerk then. :P_


	10. Spinarak Kouda! To Cherrygrove We Go!

_**Chapter Nine:**_ Spinarak Kouda! To Cherrygrove We Go!

_"Ne, ne...Does she intend to wake up any time soon?"_

_"I doubt it, dude."_

_"...Don't call me dude."_

_"Whatever, dude."_

_"..."_

_"She should leave soon. She need to get to Violet if she intends to carry out this plan of hers."_

_"Agreed. Shall I go get Squirt?"_

_"Of course."_

The two Trainers started their long journey back to Cherrygrove. It was about six in the morning now, and all the Pokemon that resided in the dark were quickly crawling, flying, or running back to their shadowy dens to go back to sleep. All but a single Spinarak, one who was already asleep in a tree, his webbing being the only thing that was stopping him from crashing into the ground below.

The two newbie Trainers did not see the Spinarak, being half asleep themselves and mildly talking about future plans. Thus the current problem...

Haruka was running around in circles, a not sleeping yet not awake Spinarak on her head who was currently wondering what the hell was going on and why it was so breezy. The Spinarak was also getting a bit dizzy, but did not know why. Meanwhile, Tsukasa was mildly chuckling at the scene, not having much energy to laugh any louder at Haruka's expense.

Then he realized something. Tsukasa smirked, a plan starting to form in his mind. He reached for a Pokeball that was in his bag, and pressed the middle button, a red light coming out and hitting Haruka and Spinarak. The two became incased in the red energy, and Haruka stopped running, a content look on her face. Tsukasa sweatdropped, and walked over to the now wide awake Spinarak, who eagerly jumped off the still content teenager and onto the ground below.

Tsukasa pulled out Jet's Pokeball and the tiny crocodile Pokemon appeared, yawning. He looked at Tsukasa, a mild look of annoyance and drowziness on his face. Tsukasa pointed at the spider Pokemon, and Jet grinned before running towards the Spinarak and using Scratch. The spider Pokemon cried out in pain, before an angry looked appeared on its face and it sprayed white goop out of its mouth. Jet jumped up into the air, causing the String Shot to miss its target. Instead, it hit Haruka who was just coming out of her daze. Haruka cried out, and started trying to get the white goop out of her clothes, hair, and off her face.

Jet sent out a blast of water at the green spider, who dodged quickly. Jet then came at the Spinarak, claws glowing in order to use a stronger Scratch. Spinarak sent a String Shot out at the advancing crocodile, and Jet had to try to get all the goop off of him. Then the Spinarak started to gloat, and Tsukasa decided to use this as a chance to capture the spider Pokemon.

He threw the Pokeball at the Spinarak. The Spinarak had apparently predicted this, and used its String Shot to capture the ball and chuck it at a near by tree. Unfortunately for one other unlucky spider Pokemon, a Spinarak started to crawl down the tree to set out more webs and was hit by the Pokeball.

Red light poured out of the orb, and an airy feeling came over the unprepared spider Pokemon as it was transported into the Realm of the Pokeball. Tsukasa stood their dumbfounded, while the Spinarak sweatdropped before it started crawling away, attention obviously diverted away from it. The ball swayed back and forth, before finally letting out a familar 'ping' . Haruka, who had finally gotten all the webs off her, looked over at Tsukasa and noticed his expression. She raised an eyebrow, not knowing what exactly had happened while she was pulling off all the webs. Tsukasa finally came to his senses, and walked over to the still red and white orb. He picked it up, and Jet looked over eagerly while Haruka was stuck wondering what had happened. Tsukasa pressed the button in the middle, and sure as hell, the green spider Pokemon came out of the ball, just as confused as Haruka.

Speaking of Haruka, she walked over to the Spinarak and grabbed a near by stick before starting to poke the poor spider in the backside with a slightly irritated look on her face. Tsukasa opened his backpack and started rumaging through it, trying to find the translator. A few minutes of going through items, he finally found one. This one was a light shade of purple. Tsukasa walked over to Spinarak, pushing Haruka out of the way, who was still poking Spinarak with the stick, and placing the device around its neck. Jet ran over to the Spinarak, a large grin on his crocodile jaws.

"Hiya! Name's Jet! My Trainer is Tsukasa, and he's just a beginner! In fact, you're his--"Jet didn't get to finish his sentance because Tsukasa had firmly clamped his hand around the crocodile's mouth... Which was not that bright of an idea, seeing as after a glare from the crocodile, Tsukasa's hand was in a world of hurt due to Jet's very sharp fangs. Tsukasa cried out, while Jet had a smug little smirk on his face, and haruka was still very confused. The Spinarak raised an eyebrow before introducing himself.

"My name is Kouda. I suppose you are Tsukasa, red-haired Human?" The Spinarak, now known as Kouda, asked. Tsukasa nodded, and Kouda turned to Haruka."What is your name, blue-haired female Human? And why were you poking me with a stick earlier?"

"Uhm...Name's Haruka. Haruka Leaf. And as for why I was poking you with stick, well...I thought you were the Spinarak that had fallen on me and sprayed me with that nasty web stuff." Haruka explained, laughing nervously. Haruka turned to Tsukasa."When the heck did you get a Spinarak?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"A few minutes ago, while you were busy trying to take all that webbing off of you that the other Spinarak had sprayed on you."Tsukasa replied, sticking his hands into his pockets."I think we need to go to Cherrygrove sooner or later, because our Pokemon are bound to collapse sooner or later." Haruka nodded in agreement, and the two newbie Trainers, now with an extra Pokemon, set off for Cherrygrove to go to the Pokmon Center, and the PokeMart to restock.

A good fourty minutes or so later, the two Trainers reached Cherrygrove. Tsukasa and Haruka headed to the Pokemon Center to heal their Pokemon while they went off to restock on the supplies that they were begining to run out of. And to maybe get some breakfast, as well since the last thing they had had to eat were a few Oran Berries, and those were not very filling.

Thirty minutes later, the two newbie Trainers and their five Pokemon companions set off to Violet City, eating taquitos from a local Quik Trip...

_:D Kouda's capture is epic. I can just imagine something like that happening to a Trainer and them going "what the fuck? ._.;" xD_


	11. Double Team, Double Battle!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Ten:** Double Team

As our two newbie Trainers travel down the road, Pokemon in tow, Yochi and a very unwilling Skitty trek down to Violet from their minibase in Goldenrod. And as Yochi and Skitty travel, so do two other newbie Trainers...

Seth and Sandra hid in the bushes, hoping to ambush any Trainers that appeared on the often traveled on Route Thirty. Just as Seth was starting to get impatient, a blue haired girl with a Cyndaquil in her arms came in his row of vison, talking to a red haired boy with a Spinarak on his head. Walking behind them was a very uneager Totodile with a scar on its chest and a blue orb strapped to its back, a more energetic Totodile who was dancing around like mad, and an amused Chikorita.

Seth and Sandra looked at each other, both of the two twins grinning with a disturbing hint of malice hidden under all their glee. They reached for their Pokeballs, and once they had them in their hands they jumped out of the bushes, one of the two twins going the opposite way of the other, keeping them from escaping.

Tsukasa clenched his fist, while Haruka held Byrn closer to her chest. The fire mouse gave out a muffled squeak, but was silent for the most part as he was smothered. The two unknown Trainers pointed at Haruka and Tsukasa dramatically.

"You there! Dumbass losers! We challenge you to a battle!" The male blonde shouted. His twin grinned maniacally.

"That's right! And you can't back down!" Tsukasa smirked, wanting to see if Jet got any better, and wanting to test out Kouda. Haruka frowned, and seeing as it wasn't any Pokemon kidnappers, she placed Byrn on the ground. Byrn, who was happy to not be smothered, flared up his back due to the challange and with a bit of annoyance that his transportation wasn't carrying him anymore. Seth took a Pokeball off his belt and threw it up into the air. Sandra did the same as she explained the rules of the battle."This'll be a double battle! Two Pokemon for each Trainer! You can't use any items, ether." Tsukasa smirked, while Haruka got Raft and Feuille out of the way.

The light from the Pokeballs took the shape of two different Pokemon. A Growlithe formed from the red light of Seth's Pokeball, and a Teddiursa from Sandra's Pokeball. Haruka pulled out her Pokedex and flipped it open.

_"Teddiursa, the Little Bear Pokemon. If it finds honey, the cresent moon shape on its forehead will glow. It always licks its paws because they are soaked with honey."_ - Haruka's black Pokedex spoke. Haruka turned to the Growlithe.

_"Growlithe, the Puppy Pokemon. It is very loyal, and will fearlessly bark at any opponent to protect its Trainer from harm."_ Haruka thought about which Pokemon would be good for this battle. Raft would be good against the Growlithe, but so would Jet. Feuille wouldn't be very good against Growlithe, but could use her vines to hold it while she used Razor Leaf on the Teddiursa. Byrn wouldn't do too well against the Growlithe, either, but would do pretty well against Teddiursa. Haruka frowned, crossing her arms. Tsukasa was also thinking about which Pokemon to use. Kouda was a bug type, which wouldn't do too well against the Growlithe's fire, but it could contain and slow both Pokemon. Perhaps for the second battle...

"Jet, you're up." Jet nodded, grinning widely. It jumped into the space between Tsukasa and the two opponent Pokemon, and started twirling in a circle. Haruka frowned, knowing now that one of her options was now taken away. She quickly did enie meanie miny moe, and it landed on Feuille.

"Feuille, it's your time to shine." Haruka said loudly, grinning widely. Feuille nodded nervously, but jumped into the fray anyways. Seth and Sandra smirked at Haruka's, knowing that Growlithe could easily turn the green leaf Pokemon into a stirfry.

"Wick, use Ember!" Seth commanded the Growlithe. It nodded, and took a deep breath before sending flames from its mouth, directing them at Feuille. Feuille jumped back, but one of her paws got hit by the flames and she Growled, before Tackling the Growlithe. Wick flew back a few feet and landed halfway on its side, but still partally on its belly. Feuille raised her vines that had sprouted from her neck and shot them at the puppy, picking him up and throwing him at the Teddiursa who was attempting to Scratch Jet. Jet was taunting the small bear, dancing out of the way and occasionally using Water Gun to blast the small bear away from the crocodile. It was because of one of these water blasts that Feuille missed her intended target and Wick slammed into the dirt roughly, while being blasted with a Water Gun.

Feuille released her vines from the puppy and withdrew them to her neck, before raising her leaf and swinging it, unleashing a Razor Leaf at the still being blasted with water Wick. Feuille didn't spot the small bear Pokemon come up from behind her, however, and was slugged across the muzzle with a glowing fist. The Teddiursa slugged Feuille numerous times, the Fury Swipes attack working like a charm. Feuille unleashed her Vine Whip against the tiny bear when the Fury Swipes attack was over, picking up the bear into the air and throwing it at the just getting up Wick. The two Pokemon collided, and Jet took this oppotunity to use a Scratch while Feuille started running to the collapsed Pokemon, set to Tackle. As the two Pokemon started to get up, both off them were slammed back down with the strikes from the small dinosaur and the crocodile. They started to get up once more, but collapsed.

Haruka jumped up and down in the air, cheering loudly for Feuille. Tsukasa was grinning widely, and crossed his arms. Seth and Sandra frowned, and returned their two fallen friends.

"Hey! You two!" Haruka stopped celebrating, and Tsukasa looked at their opponent Trainers. Seth was glaring at the angrily."When did you two start out?"

"Yesterday." Haruka replied casually. "But we were out all night so we got lots of training." Haruka picked up Feuille and hugged her, while the two twins' frowns grew bigger.

"What the hell? We started out earlier this week! We should of been able to beat you two!" Sandra growled, crossing her arms. Tsukasa snorted.

"The battle still isn't over, y'know. One more battle, right?" Sandra and Seth threw out two more Pokemon. One was a Spinarak, while the other was a Ledyba. Haruka grinned. Byrn could easily take these two. She was just about to call Byrn out, when Raft ran out instead. Haruka blinked, and then pouted a bit, but left the crocodile Pokemon out on the field. Kouda hoppe off Tsukasa's head, which caused the red haired Trainer to stumble a bit due to the less wieght on his head. Kouda crawled over to the field, looking ready to battle.

Haruka pulled out her Pokedex, listening to the information it gave, and then put it back in he pocket, ready to battle. She pointed at the Ledyba, grinning."All right, Raft! Use Tackle!" Raft looked at her like she was an idiot, before sucking in air and sending a Water Gun at the Spinarak. The spider flew into a tree trunk a slid down, giving Raft enough time to slam into the spider with a rough Headbutt. The Spinarak cried out in pain, and Raft used Scratch on the green spider. Kouda crawled over to the Ledyba, and used String Shot to weigh it down, and then slammed into it with a Poison Sting. The ladybug cried out, before striking Kouda with a Tackle, followed by a Supersonic. Kouda wobbled around, before it started to strike random objects, including itself. Kouda hit the Ledyba a few times, but hit himself more often. Eventually, the Supersonic wore off and Kouda struck Ledyba with another Poison Sting. This one poisoned the ladybug.

Kouda used his String Shot to pick up and throw the poisoned Ledyba into a tree near the one where Raft was assaulting the other Spinarak. At this time, the Spinarak Raft was facing slammed its horn into the crocodile's belly. The Poison Sting didn't poison Raft, but it did a lot of damage to the unsuspecting Totodile. Raft hit the ground hard, and was then slammed into by the opponent's Ledyba, who was being flung around like a yo-yo due to Kouda's String Shot. Raft threw the Ledyba off by blasting it with a Water Gun. The Ledyba flew off of Raft, and flew into the tree trunk that the opponent's Spinarak was resting under. The Spinarak looked up in time to see the web covered ladybug falling down, but wasn't able to dodge in time and got smooshed. It had taken lots of damage from Raft, and being crushed by a Ledyba didn't help matters, so it promptly went unconcious.

The Ledyba got off its fallen comrad, only to be hit by a combined attack by Kouda's Poison Sting and Raft's Scratch. The Ledyba collapsed, and Seth and Sandra returned the two Pokemon. They glared at the two opposing Trainers, before running off towards Cherrygrove. Haruka rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a few Potions. She used them on her Pokemon, while she congratulated them for doing such a good job. Tsukasa gave his Pokemon a large grin while he applied the spray medicine to them as well. They let their Pokemon stay out more for doing a good job, and then resumed their quest to Violet City.

_I always found it annoying that you couldn't get past those two unless you had cut._


	12. Battle Time! One Step Closer!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Eleven:** Battle Time! One Step Closer!

Haruka and Tsukasa had reached a little landmark. It wasn't all that little, however. It's pretty hard for a cave to be little. Yes, they had reached Route 31. And now they were faced with the large cave that stood before them.

"Should we go in?" Tsukasa asked, staring up at mouth of the cave. Kouda was on his head once more, and had to keep crawling back up due to the fact that Tsukasa's head was angled different than what it had been previously. Raft stood next to Feuille, paws crossed and starring at the cave with disintrest. Byrn was in Haruka's arms once more, mainly because Haruka provided easy transport and he didn't have to constantly run up to them due to his very short legs. Jet was on the other side of Feuille, a large grin sporting on his face as usual. Haruka shrugged, causing Byrn to whine a bit.

"I dunno. It'll probably be dark in there. We might run into something, and not be able to run away. And I've heard that Ursarang live in that cave." Haruka replied, frowning as she mentioned the Ursarang.

"You bet your cute little butt that there are Ursarang in that cave!" A voice from behind said cheerfully. Haruka looked over her shoulder and saw a male with purple hair standing about ten feet away. His hand was on a backpack strap that was pink. He was wearing a weird costume. It was all green and covered in spikes. Tsukasa also took a look back, and sweat dropped.

"Uh...Who're you?" Haruka asked. The kid smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Name's Night. I'm the son of Harley Furrow." He declaired proudly.

"Sorry. Dunno who that is." Haruka replied. Night did a face fault. After he got up, he pointed at the two Trainers.

"I challange you to a battle!" Night declaired angrily. Haruka shrugged.

"Fine with me." Haruka replied.

"No. He's mine." Tsukasa wanted to battle by himself. Haruka had more experience than him, and he wanted to change that. Night smirked, before pulling out a Pokeball from his belt and throwing it into the air. It exploded and took the shape of an Spinarak.

"Meet Yarn! He's the Pokemon that my dad, the most famous Coordinator in the world, gave me!" Night declaired.

"If he's the most famous Coordinator in the world, how come I haven't heard about him?" Haruka pointed out. Night glared at her. Tsukasa quickly chose a Pokemon, which wasn't hard since he only had two. He chose Jet.

"Jet, go kick that loser's butt." Jet nodded eagerly, and ran out from next to Feuille.

"Yeah, let's go!" Yarn crawled over to the area, and then, out of the blue, struck Jet with a Poison Sting. Jet grunted and flew back about a foot, before raising his paw and striking the spider with a nice little Scratch. Yarn cried out, releasing a String Shot reflexivily. Jet struggled in the sticky substance while Yarn recovered from being Scratched in the face. Jet broke out of the webbing just as Yarn recovered from being Scratched, and the two Charged at each other. As Yarn prepared another Poison Sting, Jet jumped into the air and took a big gulp of air before expelling the large stream of water from his mouth. The Water Gun missed, however, and Yarn stopped in his tracks for a midsecond before charging again at the now falling Jet.

Just as Jet landed on the ground, Yarn struck him in the stomach with a Poison Sting. Jet flew backwards from the force of the impact and the shock of being struck. He didn't land right, and was on his back as the Spinarak attempted to use a death-from-above style Poison Sting. Jet barely rolled out of the way in time, and the Spinarak wound up hitting his head and getting his horn stuck in the ground. Yarn struggled for a few minutes, feet not able to touch the gground, before he used String Shot to grab a tree branch and pull him out of the dirt. Yarn shock his head in an attempt to get the dirt off, and was struck by a Water Gun. The Water Gun slammed him into the tree trunk. Jet, unable to get up to the branch, had to use his long distance attacks to be able to get a hit in. The Spinarak quickly shook off the attack and stayed in the tree. Jet threw a few more Water Guns, most of them missing.

Yarn's only long distance attack was String Shot, however, so the spider had to jump down from the tree, aiming its Poison Sting at Jet's head. Jet knew what Yarn intended to do, and jumped back not a moment too soon. His foot was scratched by the spider's horn, however, and he was poisoned. Jet tried to wash out the poison, but that just pushed some of it into his blood stream. Jet directed his Water Gun at the Spinarak, who attempted to dodge but failed and was slammed into the tree trunk once more. Yarn slid down the tree trunk and tried to get up, but collapsed. Tsukasa smirked and crossed his arms, while Night looked horrifired that he had lost as well as angry. Haruka looked through her bag, searching for an Antidote and a Potion.

Night returned his Spinarak, while Haruka handed the needed supplies to Tsukasa. Night regretfully handed over some money, and then stormed off. But not before he gave them a bit of information about the cave.

"I heard that there are ghosts in there, plus the Ursarang. I really don't think you should go into that cave." Haruka grinned at the mention of ghosts.

"Really? I love ghost Pokemon! They're so fun to use on Holloween!" Haruka said excitedly, wanting to go into the cave to catch herself a ghost. Night frowned.

"You idiot! You could get spirited away like they say in the legend!" Night shouted angrily, before turning around and stomping off in anger. Haruka blinked.

"Spirited away? Legend? I wonder if there really is a legend surrounding this area." Tsukasa shrugged, and returned Jet to his Pokeball. Jet needed a rest. He had been in a few battles, and the poison made him tired. Raft looked at the cave in interest. If there were ghosts, and they cud be spirited away, then why wasn't the area closed off? Raft frowned, before walking into the mouth of the cave. Haruka saw Raft go in, and so the Trainer followed the crocodile Pokemon into the cave. Tsukasa, Feuille, and Byrn followed. Kouda was still on Tsukasa's head.

The cave was dark inside, the only light coming from a few cracks in the roof of the cave as well as the mouth of the cave. Puddles were around the cracks in the cave, and the air was cooler. As the two Trainers followed the now interested Raft further into the cave, Feuille looked around nervously. Caves were dark. No sunlight could reach her. Feuille started to panic, away from the warm rays of the sun, her comfort. Even the Pokeball Realm was more friendly than this place, being surrounded by other Pokemon on the grounds around the Chatue that fed and housed the captured Pokemon. Even the artifical sun of the Pokeball Realm gave comfort, but here it was dark. Feuille felt weak, and rushed past Haruka, wanting to find Raft and get out of this place. As the leaf Pokemon ran, she slipped on the wet ground and slid into a hole that sent her to a floor below.

The group came to a halt as the grass Pokemon disapeared into the hole. Haruka looked at the hole to the direction that Raft went, and then back to the hole. Tsukasa noticed Haruka's problem, and offered to go after Feuille while Haruka went after Raft. Haruka gave Tsukasa Feuille's Pokeball, and ran after Raft as Tsukasa went down the hole. The hole was actually more like a slide that went down very sharply and was rimmed with the water droplets, which made the 'fall' go even faster. Tsukasa fell out of the slide-like hole, and landed very roughly on his butt. Tsukasa groaned and rubbed his butt, before checking to see if Kouda was okay. Kouda was fine, thankfully, so Jet would be able to rest longer.

Feuille was a few yards off, panicking. She was yelling worriedly, not knwoing that Tsukasa was there. Kouda had crawled off Tsukasa's head, and the Trainer and Pokemon approached Feuille. Feuille turnd around and saw them, but must of mistaken them for an enemy, and ran off down a tunnel. Tsukasa cursed, and ran after the Chikorita. They came to another open cavern, and spotted the green Pokemon cowering at the sight of another Pokemon. Tsukasa pulled out his Pokedex and flipped it open.

_"Gastly, the Gas Pokemon. A being that exists as a thin gas. It can topple a Donphan by enveloping the prey in two seconds."_ - The Pokedex spoke in a male voice. The Gastly turned around, hearing the Dex. Tsukasa took a step back, before thinking quickly. Would a Spinarak do good against a ghost? Only one way to find out...

"Kouda, use Poison Sting!" The Spinarak launched itself at the ghost Pokemon, which was an odd blue color instead of the purple one that was shown in the Pokedex. The attack actually hit the ghost Pokemon, but it didn't look like it did much damage. Feuille, now recognizing who the Trainer and Pokemon were, stood up and raised her leaf. She flung her Razor Leaves at the ghost, and it cried out. Tsukasa quickly pulled out a Pokeball and threw it at the Pokemon, which was still distracted in pain. It was envelopted in a red light, before it was sucked into the ball. The ball fell to the ground and shook a few times before it gave a ding and was silent. Tsukasa grinned and picked up the ball."Hell yeah! I just caught a Gastly!" Tsukasa laughed happily at his second capture, before petting Kouda on the head, making sure he didn''t hit the Spinarak's horn. Kouda smiled, and Feuille felt a bit happy that she had helped made the captured possible.

"You did good as well, Feuille. But don't run off like that, okay? Haruka nearly fainted when you fell down that hole." Feuille nodded sadly, and Tsukasa pulled out Feuille's Pokeball."Would you rather be in the Pokeball? You seemed a bit freaked about the cave." Feuille nodded, and Tsukasa pressed the button on the middle of the ball. Feuille was sucked in the the ball, and returned to the Realm of the Pokeball. Tsukasa looked around the cavern where they were, unsure of how to get out."We might as well start looking for an exit." Kouda nodded, and crawled up to Tsukasa's head. The two set off to find an exit.

Meanwhile, Haruka had found Raft. She had also found a cave full of bat Pokemon. Haruka cautiously walked through the area, trying to reach the crocodile Pokemon without waking up any of the bat Pokemon. Haruka stepped over a few rocks, while Byrn tried to avoid all the puddles. Fire Pokemon and water don't mix, after all. But with all their caution, they didn't notice where the other was going, and Haruka wound up tripping over Byrn. She fell onto the hard rock floor, grunting. But this thankfully didn't wake up the bat Pokemon. What did wake them up was Haruka's Pokedex falling out of the pocket in her Mom's Ranger jacket, sliding over the floor and opening up as it hit a rock that made it fly up a few inches. The Pokedex began to speak, much to Haruka, Byrn, and Raft's horror.

_"Zubat, the Bat Pokemon. It has no eyes. Instead, it relies on its ultrasonic cries for echo location to flit about in the darkness. Golbat, the Bat Pokemon. It loves to drink the blood of living things. Once it bites, it will not stop draining energy from the victim even if it gets too heavy to fly. Crobat, the Bat Pokemon. The development of wings on its legs enables it to fly fast but also tough to stop and rest. It flies so silently throught the dark on its four wings that it may not be noticed even when nearby."_ - The black Pokedex spoke ominously as the bat Pokemon woke up, as if it was telling them exactly how these creatures might kill them and there was nothing that they could do about it. Haruka cursed, and picked up Byrn. She grabbed Raft's Pokeball and recalled the crocodile, ensuring its safety. She then got up and started to run towards the nearest exit.

But of course, the bat Pokemon followed, angry that they had been awakened from their slumber. A few of the bat Pokemon struck Haruka, and Haruka fell to the ground from tripping over a rock. A lone Pokeball slipped from her belt, and sucked up a Zubat by accident, as Haruka wished for the moment to be over. The bats flew over, a few of them hitting the Trainer, and out of the cave. Byrn crawled out from under Haruka, annoyed that he had been squashed by her 140 pound body, but also grateful because said body gave the Cyndaquil a shield. Byrn noticed the Pokeball and picked it up, while Haruka remembered that she had abandoned her Pokedex and got up to go fetch it. She picked the troublesome device up, and slid it into her pocket after she had closed it. She walked back over and picked up her backpack, and started to pick up Byrn when she saw the Pokeball in his paws.

"Where did that come from?" She wondered aloud, as Byrn handed her the red and white orb. Haruka pressed the button in the middle of the ball, and the red light formed the shape of a bat. Haruka blinked, wondering how the hell that actually happened, as the Zubat fluttered about. The Zubat seemed a bit annoyed at being captured, but flew over to Byrn's head and landed on the mouse. Haruka rumaged through her bag once more, still a bit shocked, and pulled out a green translator that she put on the blue and purple bat Pokemon. Byrn and Haruka walked back the way they came, the Zubat resting on Byrn's head.

As they exited the cave, they spotted Tsukasa coming out of a hole that had a latter in it. Tsukasa, grinning widely, walked over to Haruka. Tsukasa spotted the bat resting on Byrn's head and felt a bit of annoyance.

"Hey, Haruka. Guess what I caught?" Tsukasa asked, in a way that sounded like he was bragging.

"Bubonic plague?" Haruka asked, jokingly. Tsukasa frowned, obviously not amused.

"No. I caught a Gastly." Haruka's jaw dropped, and Tsukasa smirked at her reaction."And its blue instead of purple." Haruka's jaw dropped even more.

"There's no way you could've. Let me see." Haruka replied, disbelief apparant. Tsukasa proudly let out his Gastly. It was in fact blue instead of purple."No way! There's no way in hell you could've caught a shiny!" Haruka said, as she stared at the Gastly. Tsukasa pulled out a purple translator, and tried to stick it on the ghost Pokemon, but he fell right through it. Tsukasa and Haruka sweatdropped."Well, I caught a Zubat."

"By accident." Byrn added. Haruka face-palmed.

"You weren't supose to tell him that!"

"Meh." Byrn replied. The Zubat cleared its throat, and all eyes turned to it.

"Will you stop reffering to me as my species name? My name is Venin, thank you very much." The Zubat now known as Venin stated in an annoyed mannor. Gastly floated right through the translator that was in Tsukasa's hands, and it attached to the ghost Pokemon.

"Agreed. My name is Blinde." The ghost Pokemon spoke in a feminine voice. Haruka and Tsukasa grinned. Tsukasa gave Haruka Feuille's Pokeball, and then released Jet. Haruka released Raft and Feuille, and the three Pokemon appeared.

"Alright! Now that we have two new members to our group of friends, lets go to Violet!" Haruka shouted, raising both her hands into the air. The Pokemon nodded in agreement, and the two teams set off, for whatever awaited them in the future. High above them, two Pokemon floated.

"These are the two Trainers who will face off against her?" One asked. The other nodded.

"Yes. Until we can meet them face to face, we must pray to Arceus for their safety."

_Haruka is jealous of Tsukasa. xD I love the interactions between Tsukasa, Haruka, and Byrn. xD And Venin thinks Byrn's head is comfortable. :D Trying to figure out how to get Blinde's translator on was interesting when I wrote this, I think. xD_


	13. Finally in Violet! Now What?

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Twelve:** So We've Made it to Violet...Now What?

Fifteen minutes of walking later, the tired Trainers had finally reached the waypoint that blocked Route 31 from Violet City. Haruka was cheering at the fact that they had finally reached the city, eager to see the city that she had never been to before. Venin had retreated to his Pokeball, seeing as the sun made his skin itch. Blinde had also retreated to her Pokeball, but more out of the fact that she wanted to explore the Chateu than being bothered by the sun.

After Haruka had stopped cheering, the two Trainers just stood there, unsure of if they should actually go into the building. Raft, who was getting a bit annoyed at waiting for the two to make their choice, walked up to the automatic door which opened, minorly startling the water Pokemon. Jet followed his brother into the building eagerly. With their choice decided, Haruka and Tsukasa went into the building.

The building was pretty plain. A security guard was near each entrance, and there were two long counters that spanned from both doors and connected. The walkway was a bit narrow, and there were a few people in the path. A lady behind one of the desks asked to see their passport or Pokedex, and Haruka and Tsukasa pulled out their Pokedex. They showed them to the woman, and then exited the building.

The other side of the building was just as impressive as the side they had come from. No, it was not filled with the wild of Route 31, but it had its own beauty. A mixture of wooden and steel buildings were everywhere. A large tower was in the distance, and the two Trainers wondered how exactly they missed it. The two Trainers spotted a sign, and walked over to it. It was a town map, and there were paper take-out maps as well. Haruka and Tsukasa each took one, looking for the PokeCenter.

The PokeCenter was not far off from the waypoint. There was a short walk from the waypoint, and up a small hill. The two Trainers entered the PokeCenter, and walked up to the front desk. Nurse Joy took their Pokeballs and the Pokemon who weren't in their Pokeballs followed the Nurse to make sure that they weren't injured or anything.

With that done, the two Trainers walked over to the side of the building, unsure of what to do next. Haruka thought that they should restock on items, and then reserve a room somewhere. Tsukasa agreed, but he wanted to locate the Gym first, and any other points of intrest. They checked their maps, and noticed the tower they had seen earlier. It was holding a contest of sorts. Whoever could beat all the Trainers on each floor up to the final floor would get a very useful Hidden Machine.

"I think we should try for that Hidden Machine. We might need it if we wind up in any more caves." Tsukasa said as he finished reading about the contest. Haruka nodded, grinning sheepishly since it was her Pokemon that caused so much trouble.

"Hmm, looks like there's also going to be a festival in a weeks time." Haruka pointed out.

"And these Ruins of Alph seem interesting. This town has a lot that you can do." Tsukasa replied, circling the Ruins with a pen that was always attached to his belt loop."We should most likely do the contest, the Gym battle, and the Ruins. I dunno if we can stay long enough to go to the festival." Haruka frowned. She really wanted to go to that festival. All the festivals in New Bark Town were usually really boring.

"Well, if we stay we might be able to battle some more Trainers and get stronger, right?" Haruka grinned, knowing that Tsukasa would probably not be able to resist having his Pokemon get stronger. Tsukasa froze, and Haruka's grin grew bigger. Tsukasa muttered something that she couldn't hear.

"Whatever. Let's go pick up those supplies from the PokeMart and then come back to the PokeCenter. I think they lend rooms to Trainers for free." Haruka nodded, and the two set off to find the PokeMart.

It turned out that the PokeMart was next to the Gym, so they were able to figure out a few things about the Gym as they picked up supplies. Apparently it was a flying type Gym, which wasn't very good for either Trainer. Blinde only had Ghost attacks at the moment, and those didn't do anything against most flying types, since they were usually never pure fliers. Kouda was a bug type, so he could easily get wiped. Feuille was a grass type, so she was also out of the question. And Venin only had bug type attacks. So the only Pokemon that actually stood a chance were Jet, Raft, and Byrn.

The two Trainers left the PokeMart, their bags full with items and more Translators. They walked back to the PokeCenter, where their Pokemon were waiting, fully healed. They reserved a room, and were given two keys. As soon as they found their room, they crashed on the beds. Their room had two bunk beds, and was pretty bland. They did have a small balcony that faced the Pokemon School, Sprout Tower, and the lake next to Sprout Tower. The two Trainers spent the rest of the day resting in their room.

The next day, Tsukasa instinctivly woke up at eight and got up. He yawned and looked around the room. He remembered he was no longer at the orphanage, and felt sad. He had liked the orphanage, but he also had wanted to become a Pokemon Trainer. He had to either give up his home which he had had for ten years, or give up his dream. Home it was. He was going to have to leave eventually, so he left sooner rather than later. But looking back at his choice...he had made what he hoped were a few friends. He still felt homesick, though...

Thirty minutes later, Haruka and the Pokemon were up. They left the Pokemon Center, and headed over to Sprout Tower eagerly, hoping to win. Tsukasa grinned as he saw the enthusiam. Maybe his old life was over, but he had a new one just ahead of him. But hey, he could always go back and visit.

_So we got a bit more on Tsukasa. No, Tsukasa does not have a tragic past. He liked the orphanage. The worst thing that happened was he lost his parents, but he was too young to understand. But the important thing was that he actually liked the orphange. This chapter was more filler-esque. Oh, and when I put 'brother' with Raft and Jet, I didn't mean that as if they were related. I meant that species-wise. Humm...I'm wondering if I should make a story about the adventures of the Pokemon in the "Pokeball Realm". It would be interesting, I think. o.O_


	14. Choose Your Path! Battle to Rise!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Thirteen:** Choose Your Path! Battle to Rise!

Haruka and Tsukasa stood at the first floor of Sprout Tower, each at a chosen staircase. Both would take them to the fifth floor, where they would battle for the Hidden Machine Flash. They ran up their chosen staircase after the Monk had said "Go", their Pokemon out of their Pokeballs, following behind the two.

There were a few rules in the challenge. First off, you had to battle every trainer you came across, as well as all the wild Pokemon you came across. You could catch the wild Pokemon, and it still counted as a win. Lose, and you have to start all over again. Sneak past all the roaming Monks that had Pokemon of their own and reach the fifth floor before the other in order to battle the Head Monk who held the Hidden Machine.

Haruka ran up her set of stairs, and ran directly into a Monk. The Monk grinned, and threw the Pokeball in his hand into th air. A Hoothoot came out. Haruka quickly pulled out her Pokedex.

_"Hoothoot, the Owl Pokemon. It has an internal organ that allows it to keep a perfect sense of time. Whatever happens, it keeps rhythm by tilting its head in time."_ Haruka frowned. if it had a perfect sense of timing, they were pretty much screwed. Nevertheless, Haruka sent out Venin to battle against the owl.

Hooters, as the Monk had called it, charged at Venin with a Tackle. Venin flew into the air, and used Supersonic. The owl flew around, confused by the high pitched soundwaves, and repeatedly rammed its body into the pillar. Or maybe the pillar just kept hitting Hooters, seeing as the pillar in the center of the tower kept moving. The Monk sweatdropped, and recalled the Hoothoot, and threw out another Pokeball. The red light formed the shape of a cute bunny. Haruka blinked, but pulled out her Pokedex anyways.

_"Buneary, the Rabbit Pokemon. When it senses danger, it perks up its ears. On cold nights, it sleeps with its head tucked into its fur."_ Haruka grinned, and told Venin to use Supersonic once more. This time, however, the attack did not work. Venin dove down to the rabbit, preparing to use Leech Life. The rabbit was prepared, however, and attacked the bat Pokemon with its ears. One of the ears hit Venin's wing, and the bat crumpled against the floor of the tower. Haruka frowned, and returned Venin. She was about to send out Byrn to deal with the Buneary, but Raft jumped out instead, blasting the rabbit with a Water Gun that caused it to slam into the pillar and fall down the crack between the floor and the pillar. Haruka's eyes widened in horror as the pillar started to move towards the rabbit. The pillar would have crushed the Buneary, had not the Monk of returned it.

"Very well. You win. Move on." The Monk growled, obviously not happy with the turn out, and Haruka nodded, running from the site. She had nearly killed a Pokemon! Why had Raft done that? Haruka frowned worriedly, and turned her head back to look at the blue crocodile for a few seconds, before turning her head back around. And then she spotted it. A purple blob of gas that had eyes. Previous thoughts forgotten, she picked up a Pokeball from her belt that was unoccupied. Time to catch a Gastly! The Gastly hadn't spotted the Trainer and Pokemon yet, seeming more interested in something else. She pointed her finger at the ghost Pokemon, and shouted a command to Raft. Use Water Gun. A little test, to see if he was going ot listen to her...

Raft did nothing, just plopped down and glared at the blue haired Trainer. Haruka blinked, and the now aware Gastly had turned around, ready to fight. Haruka sighed, and sent out Feuille to battle, commanding the leaf Pokemon to use a Razor Leaf. The Pokemon sent razor sharp leaves at the ghost, who flew back. The ghost gave off a twisted grin, then it used Hypnosis, and Feuille fell asleep. Haruka cursed, and withdrew Feuille. Looks like it was time for Byrn to shine once more.

"Byrn, use Ember, then Smokescreen!" Haruka cried, and Byrn took in a good ammount of air, before launching a large stream of fire at the ghost. When the fire stream stopped, Byrn took another breath and released a foul smelling gas from his mouth, clouding the field.

"Uhg...I hate that attack..." Byrn muttered, before he unleashed another Ember at the flames, thinking that an explosion would be a nice little trick to get the Gastly in a capture-able state. The hot fire hit the gas, and it exploded, like Byrn had planned.

Tsukasa turned his head to see a large plume of smoke rising in the distance, and shook his head. That was most likely Byrn and Haruka battling someone. He turned his attention to the Pokemon he was trying to catch. A nice sized Bellsprout was what he had found, and this one seemed nice to catch. Tsukasa considered which Pokemon he should use, figuring that Jet wouldn't have much effect on the grass type Pokemon. Blinde or Kouda would be a better bet than Jet, but which one should he use? Haruka had said something about ghost Pokemon being immune to normal type attacks, but Tsukasa wasn't too sure that Bellsprouts had any normal type attacks. Even so...Blinde needed some training. Blinde it was, then.

"Blinde, use Lick!" The ghost floated over to the flower Pokemon, and licked it. The Bellsprout shivered, and then used Vine Whip on the ghost, who quickly avoided the attack and sent a Hypnosis in retaliation. The flower Pokemon fell asleep, and Tsukasa smirked as he grabbed a Pokeball from his belt and chucked it at the Bellsprout. It was sucked into the ball, and it twitched a few times, before exploding. The Bellsprout had escaped, even though it was asleep. Tsukasa's jaw dropped. "What the fuck, dude? Its asleep! How the heck can it still escape?" Tsukasa growled, and threw another Pokeball at the Pokemon. The Pokeball exploded back open once more. A long stream of curses poured from Tsukasa's mouth.

Haruka turned towards the direction of the screaming, the Pokeball of her newly captured Ghastly in her hand. Haruka blinked, noting that it sounded like Tsukasa, and then spotted the stairs to the third floor. She grinned, and then ran up the stairs, happily knowing that she'd be the first one. Just had to clear this floor, and then the next floor and that HM would be in the bag. Grinning at this new knowledge, she released the Ghastly from its Pokeball. The ghost Pokemon blinked, annoyed at the fact that it had been shoved into a new world, and then promptly taken out of it.

"Ghast?" It asked, annoyed. Haruka puled out a translator. The ghost Pokemon stared at it, confused before pasing through it. It attached to the ghost, who repeated its question. "What?"

"Um, could you tell me your name? It would be nice if I didn't have to keep calling you Ghastly." The ghost stared at Haruka for a while, then rolling its eyes.

"I don't care what you call me, just as long as my name isn't It. I'm a male. Not an It." Haruka nodded, then started to think up names for the ghost.

"How about Slate?" Haruka tried. The ghost rolled his eyes, and turned to the stairs, hearing the profanity that Haruka had heard earlier.

"I really don't care. If you're a challenger, shouldn't we focus more on getting you to the top of the building instead of naming me?" Slate relied. Haruka raised an eyebrow.

"Sure, why not."

Tsukasa had finally woken up the Bellsprout with all his swearings. Tsukasa frowned at its waking up, and told Blinde to use Lick. Blinde unleashed her slobbery attack on the plant, who managed to dodge a few of the attacks, and sent a Vine Whip at the offending ghost. Tsukasa took the Pokemon battle as a chance to capture the plant, and threw a Pokeball at the Bellsprout when it had its back to him. This time, it actually stayed in the ball. Tsukasa grinned, and picked up the Pokeball.

"Hellz yeah!" He cried, before remembering the challenge. He put the Pokeball on his belt, and then recalled the three Pokemon that were not in their Pokeballs. Now it was time to look for the stairs...


	15. Tsukasa VS Haruka! Battle for the HM!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter Fourteen:** Haruka VS Tsukasa: Battle for the HM!

Tsukasa rushed up the stairs and took a glance around at the design of the third floor. It seemed to have a somehwat similar design to the last floor. The red-haired Trainer looked towards the ceiling, trying to spot the stairs going to the next floor. Where were they? Ah! There they were! Tsukasa headed towards the path that he thought would lead to the stairs, since it went in that direction, but after he had run down the hallway, he noticed that this floor did have a bit more difficult design than what he thought it did. It seems that this floor was a maze. To get to the next floor, he'd have to figure out the maze. It would help if he had something to mark the path with...

Bellsprout! The grass type Pokemon could most likely mark the paths! Tsukasa pulled the red and white orb from his belt and pressed the button in the middle. The light formed the Flower Pokemon's shape, and Tsukasa dug through his bag to find a translator. He found one, and had to readjust it so that it would actually look like it would fit the Flower Pokemon. He stuck it on the Bellsprout's head awkwardly. The Bellsprout blinked.

"Ehh? What the hell is this? It looks like a collar..." The Bellsprout muttered, an irritated look on her face."Alright, Human boy...You may have captured me, but the almighty Sakura-Hime listens to no one!" Tsukasa's eye twitched. Wow, this Bellsprout was egoistic."Firstly, you shall address me only as Sakura-Hime. Secondly, I will not be traveling in that Artifical World filled with lesser status Pokemon! Lastly, I will only listen to you after you have gained my respect, which shall be never since you are a pitiful Human!" Tsukasa crossed his arms and gave a dry look at the egoistic Bellsprout.

"Really? Well, I suppose I could just leave you here in this place. And you'd never get to see the outside world...I bet you never dreamed of traveling, seeing as you're so va.."Sakura cut him off by Screeching.

"What? You would leave me here? And not give me the pleasure of traveling? You think Sakura-Hime would be pleased by that? Feh, Humans are so moronic. I will listen to you only if what you are saying makes sense, but that is all." Sakura replied angrily, her voice going up notches in volume depending on what she was saying. She crossed her vine-like arms, and frowned. Tsukasa sighed. _Why do I get the feeling my life just got a whole lot more complicated?_ Tsukasa thought.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you want, Your Highness." Tsukasa sarcastically replied, but Sakura didn't seem to notice the sarcasm. "Right. Well, I need you to come and help me get through this maze by cutting the walls with your Vine Whip, okay? I'm kind of in a race at the moment, so I need to get through this quickly." Sakura's eyes widened at the mention of a race.

"Very well! No Human of mine shall lose! Let us go, Human!" Sakura cried, as she started making her vines scratch the wall.

"My name is Tsukasa..." Tsukasa muttered as he followed his Princess-Complexed Pokemon.

With Haruka, Feuille was currently out marking the walls with her Razor Leaf as they ran, trying to beat Tsukasa to the next floor. It seemed that there was only one staircase for this floor, and they'd both have to get through the same one. And if they didn't see the other at the staircase, they might as well assume that they were behind. As they ran, Haruka quickly noted that there weren't very many Pokemon on this floor, nor were there any Trainers. Haruka kept thinking that she was in the clear zone, until a black tail came and swept her feet off of the floor, and she fell. Feuille turned around, and saw a large snake Pokemon.

Haruka somewhat recognized the Pokemon, as it had been on the news when three of the worlds most deadly Team Rocket members had been captured and put in jail. What was it's name again? Serpipe? Servipe?

"Serviper! Ser ser!" The snake quickly slithered over to Haruka and attempted to use Wrap on her, but Feuille distracted the snake by using Razor Leaf on it. The Serviper turned to the Chikorita, anger in its eyes. Haruka quickly got up, and grabbed a random Pokeball on her waist since she had recalled all her Pokemon when she sent out Feuille to mark the walls. She pressed the button on the ball, and the red light formed Raft's body. The crocodile glared at Haruka, before taking notice of the snake.

"Tch. You get in trouble too much." Raft muttered, before he charged at the snake. He Headbutted the black snake, who took its attention from the grass Pokemon it was preparing to attack. Raft blasted it with a Water Gun, and it slammed into the wall. Feuille sent a Razor Leaf at the Serviper when Raft finsihed his Water Gun, and the poisonous snake hissed at the two Pokemon, before retreating."Hmp. Is that all?" Haruka was now standing, and was readjusting her shoulder strap of her bag since it had gotten messed up when the Serviper attacked.

"Well, now that that's over, we should get going. I'd really hate to lose this competition." Haruka spoke, as she walked over towards her two Pokemon. Feuille smiled and nodded while Raft crossed his arms and glared at Haruka, but agreed nonetheless. They started heading down the hallway once more.

Tsukasa could see the stairs in the distance, so all he had to do was reach them. Shouldn't be too hard, right? As he reached closer to the stairs, a Monk jumped inbetween him and his goal from a different path. Tsukasa muttered a curse, and for a moment he considered using Sakura's Vine Whip to toss the offending Monk into the walls of the maze and then continue on his journey. The Monk threw a Pokeball into the air, and the red light that exited the ball took the shape of a Glaceon. The Monk ordered the blue fox to use Ice Beam, and the Trainer and Pokemon had to dodge the ice blue beam that exited said creature's mouth.

Tsukasa muttered another curse, before he started thinking up plans. Glaceon was an Ice-Type Pokemon. Tsukasa had nothing that could beat an Ice-Type. Well, they could beat an Ice-Type but it wouldn't be easy. And how did he obtain one of those Ice-Types, anyways? They didn't normally live around here and Tsukasa was sure that Glaceon weren't native to the Johto reigion. Before Tsukasa could ponder the reason of a Glaceon being in Johto any more, said Ice-Type sent another attack at the red-haired Trainer. Tsukasa just barely dodged, the beam tearing a nice hole in his left shorts leg. _I suppose knocking them out wouldn't be too bad..._Tsukasa thought as he ran away from the wall.

"Sakura-Hime, knock them both out!" Tsukasa cried as the Glaceon sent a Powdered Snow at Tsukasa. Why was he the only one being attacked? Sakura used her vines to pick up the Monk and slam him into the blue fox, which caused the attack to direct to the ceiling above them as the fox was crushed by the Monk. Now that there was a nice sized hole in the roof, Tsukasa thought it would be a good time to get to the stairs."Let's go!" he cried before running full speed towards the stairs. The Bellsprout used her vines to keep up with Tsukasa, since Bellspout normally don't go very fast.

As they neared the stairs, Haruka, Raft, and Feuille ran into the room with the stairs and dashed up them. Tsukasa frowned and cursed, and followed the blue-haired trainer. The fourth floor was actually quite plain, just being a flat floor with only the center of the tower being the only vertical object besides the stairs. Haruka had stopped not far from the stairs that went from floor number three, and was looking at the floor expectantly. Tsukasa walked up behind her, taking a few glances at the floor. This seemed too easy...

Haruka noticed Tsukasa behind her, and then ran towards the stairs. Tsukasa's eyes widened, and he followed the blue-haired Trainer who currently had Raft attached to her head and Feuille in her arms. Sakura cursed as she followed Tsukasa, and then used her vines to dodge a piece of the floor that had just risen up unexpectedly. _Damn! This room is filled with traps!_ Tsukasa thought irritably as his eyes narrowed, and he had to dodge a few needles being thrown at him.

"This seems a bit dangerous for a mere race..." Tsukasa muttered, right before Haruka had to dodge her own rising tile. Raft, who was biting her head to hold on, looked a bit more than angry by the bumpy ride. Tsukasa and Haruka raced towards the end of the hall, dodging most of the traps. By the time the two had reached the staircase, their clothes were in a complete mess. Haruka had been hit several times by the needles, and her head was bleeding due to Raft's sharp teeth. Tsukasa's shorts were in worse shape now, and his right hand had a large scratch on the back of it. "Now what?" Tsukasa muttered as he tried to catch his breath. That was a bit too much...

The two Trainers looked at the stairs, before turning and looking at each other. They waited for the other to make a move towards the stairs, before Haruka quickly dashed towards the staircase. Tsukasa followed, right on her tail. The two Trainers tried to shove the other off the stairs, and they both landed on the fifth floor landing at the same time. And even then, they kept fighting, and because of this they didn't notice the old Monk coming up to them.

"Cease this idiocy at once!" Cried the Monk. The two newbie Trainers stopped fighting and stared at the Monk, who was wearing jeans and an Eastern-Sinnoh style shirt. He looked like a cowboy, if you didn't count the staff in his hand. The two Trainers blinked. "Now that I yer attention, I would like ta tell ya two that since ya both came at the same time with all yer idiocy, yer gonna have to battle each other, cuz I'm too damned lazy ta battle the both of ya. Now both of ya get off yer asses and start battling! All on all! Whatever!" The two Trainers looked at each other, and then got up, their Pokemon falling off of them.

"So...Refresh my memory, but how many Pokemon do you have?" Haruka asked, an odd grin taking place of her normally happy grin. Tsukasa smirked, and removed the remaining Pokeballs from his belt.

"Well...I've got Kouda, Jet, Sakura-Hime, and Blinde. You?" Haruka's odd grin grew wider as she pulled out her own Pokeballs.

"Byrn, Feuille, Raft, Venin, and Slate. Looks like this'll be a four on five battle, with me having an advantage." Tsukasa's smirk turned into a frown, and he sent out the three remaining members of his team.

"We'll just have to see about that then, won't we?" Haruka chuckled, and called out her own team. "So is this an all out battle, no rules and no set order, or are we going to do this one on one until one of us wins?"

"Hmm...Actually, both ideas are stupid. Can't we just do one on one like the first time Jet and I fought?" Byrn asked from beside Haruka.

"Heh, if we go with Byrn's idea we'll have more reserve power for the boss, so I have no complaints." Tsukasa replied, crossing his arms and smirking.

"Then one on one it is. I chose Byrn!" Haruka cried, pointing at Tsukasa dramatically. Byrn looked at Haruka and sweatdropped.

"Whaaaat? I said that so I _wouldn't_ have to fight." Byrn muttered, but stepped into the invisible battle ring anyways. Tsukasa's smirk grew.

"Very well, then. I'll use Jet." Jet grinned, and eagerly jumped into the invisible ring, hopping from foot to foot in eagerness."Jet, use Water Gun!" Jet took in a big breath and sent a large blast of water at the tiny mouse, who barely dodged and sent a stream of Ember back in repsonse. Jet dodged, but his tail was hit and he had to use Water Gun to make sure he didn't get a Burn. He sent another Water Gun at Byrn while he ran towards the mouse, preparing to use Scratch. Jet pulled his paw back, and then swung at the mouse just as Byrn sent another Ember at Jet. Jet Screeched as the fire scorched his flesh, and redirected his Water Gun to the place where he had been hit.

Byrn took this opportunity to Tackle the crocodile, and Jet flew a few feet backwards in recoil from the sudden Tackle while his defenses were down. The Totidile shook his head, before grinning and Headbutting his mouse opponent. Byrn cried out, and sent a fireball at Jet, who dodged. Byrn sent several fireballs at Jet in hope to make battling a tad bit easier, but Jet started blasting the fireballs with Water Guns and made Byrn's strategy useless.

The cowboy-like Monk watched the two Trainers. They gave little to no commands, and seemed to be watching and letting the Pokemon battle instead of calling out commands. This was interesting, since most of the Trainers that the Monk faced always called out attacks. The two Pokemon closed in on each other, each preparing a different attack to use on the other. Byrn was ready to use Tackle, while Jet was ready to Headbutt Byrn. The two charged at each other, and struck at almost the exact same time. The two Pokemon teetered back and forth, taking the damage from the attacks, before Jet fell on his butt and Byrn landed on his belly. It seemed that Jet was the victor of this match.

"Alright, Red. Looks like I'm battling you." Tsukasa nodded, and looked over at Haruka, who looked absolutely devestated.

"Type disadvantage, Haruka." Tsukasa said, smirking. Haruka's mouth snapped shut, and she glared at Tsukasa as she returned her Pokemon before she stomped off to the wall. Tsukasa raised an eyebrow, but kept his mouth shut.

"This'll be a one on one battle, Red. Choose your Pokemon." The cowboy-Monk then threw out a Pokeball, and it exploded, revealing a cute turtle Pokemon. Tsukasa looked back at Haruka, whose jaw had dropped once more as she saw the adorable Squirtle. Tsukasa rolled his eyes, and then decided that Sakura would be the best for the battle.

"Sakura, you're up." Tsukasa said, sticking his hands into his pockets. Sakura glared at Tsukasa.

"Sakura-Hime." Sakura corrected as she got into the ring. Tsukasa's other Pokemon had followed Haruka and her Pokemon to the wall, making the battling floor look less cluttered.

"Yes, milady. Now use Vine Whip!" Tsukasa replied sarcastically, and Sakura yet again missed the sarcasm. She sent her vines out to the turtle, who went into his shell. Sakura frowned, and then used her vines to go into the shell and strike the turtle. she didn't get to do this for very long, however, because the Squirtle shot water out of his shell, and it repelled the vines. Then the shell started to spin, and started moving towards Sakura. It would have slammed into Sakura, had the Bellsprout's body not had been so flexible. The shell kept going and going until it finally hit the wall, and the Squirtle inside flopped down on his back. He started struggling, being unable to get up. Sakura used this as an advantage, and picked up the turtle and then began repeatedly slamming it against the wall with her , the Squirtle had had enough head bumps and was knocked out.

The cowboy-Monk had an irritated look on his face, but he handed over the CD case that held the disk that they had battled for."Looks like you won, red. You two seem ready for the Violet City gym, but I doubt you two are ready for anything further than that at the moment." The two Trainers nodded, Haruka still angry for losing, and they used an Escape Rope that the cowboy-Monk showed them. As they headed to the Pokemon Center, Tsukasa pulled out the disk from the CD case.

"So this is what a Hidden Machine looks like?" Tsukasa asked. Haruka nodded, glaring at him. Tsukasa raised an eyebrow. She didn't seem like the one to hold grudges at first..."Look, you won the first time so quit being a big baby."

"It was my first loss, damn it!" Haruka cried in protest. Tsukasa glared at Haruka.

"If you didn't notice, my first loss was against you! And I still didn't whine this much!" Haruka crossed her arms, and then distanced herself from Tsukasa. "Moron..."

_Hahah, Byrn, Sakura, and the Monk are all epic. :P Sakura-Hime is just...I think the Monk's accent was originally a pain to type. xD_


	16. To the Gym! Battle Vert!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 15:** To the Gym!

Haruka stomped angrily off to the Pokemon Center, her Pokemon following her, and Tsukasa walking behind with his Pokemon at a lazy pace. Tsukasa was getting a bit irritated at Haruka's unability to take a loss. That, and Sakura was currently wrapped around his head and was cutting off the blood flow to said body part...

Tsukasa spotted the Pokemon School behind the Pokemon Center and made a mental note to check it out after he visited the Ruins. Haruka, on the other hand, completely missed it and just walked into the Pokemon Center and waited for her Pokemon to get healed. While she was in the Waiting Room, she noticed the Swablu clock on the wall and the time. They had left pretty early in the morning and didn't grab breakfast before they left for Sprout Tower, and it was about an hour after noon. Haruka sighed and went up to the room just as Tsukasa walked into the building and asked Nurse Joy to heal his Pokemon. Tsukasa had to take a few minutes to get the now sleeping Sakura off of his head. Those vines were really hard to get out of...

Tsukasa checked his PokeGear for the time, and then decided to look for a good place to eat outside of the Pokemon Center.

A few hours later, Haruka and Tsukasa met up once again. Haruka was still angry, which made Tsukasa even more annoyed. Damn, could she hold a grudge...

The two walked to the Pokemon Gym. Back in the day, the building had been relatively small and had a small hole in the roof for the bird Pokemon to escape into the sky. Now, it was still smaller than the Pokemon Leauge Stadium, but it had grown in size. The front of the building had two statues of the Legendary Birds of Johto: Ho-oh and Luiga. The front wall looked like it was made of stone feathers, and there were two platforms rising out of the ceiling of the building that were shaped like wings.

The two rookie Trainers glanced at each other, before walking up to the doors and walking through them. The building was almost pitch black inside, with the only light being from the large hole in the ceiling and the doors. It looked somewhat like a stadium on the inside, and there were lots of bleachers surrounding the walls. As the two Trainers examined their surroundings, a large Crobat flew towards the two Trainers and startled them.

"What the hell?" Haruka pulled out her Pokedex and scanned the creature.

_"Crobat, the Bat Pokemon. A Pokemon that gained vastly enhanced flying preformance by having it's legs turned into wings. Having four wings enables it to fly faster and more quietly. It was first discovered in Johto."_ After hearing the information from the black DS-like object, Tsukasa took a step forward, wanting to see if it had a Translator. It did, which usually meant it had a Trainer.

"Where is the Gym Leader?" Tsukasa asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Not here at the moment. But you can always battle the Junior Trainer in there. He needs some more practice, anyways." The Crobat answered nonchalently."I just got sent here to check out who it was that was entering the buidling. Seeing as you aren't the Gym Leader, I'm going to go fly back to my nice, dark room now. Bye!" The two Trainers blinked at the Crobat's now vanishing form.

"Well that was relatively pointless." Haruka said, sighing. Tsukasa nodded in agreement, and then started to head out the door. But before he could walkout the door he nearly slammed into a small boy that looked about ten or so.

"Huh? You need to grow a few more inches, kid..." Tsukasa muttered. The small boy frowned, and punched Tsukasa in the gut. Tsukasa tooked a step back and groaned in pain.

"I'm not a little kid! My name is Vert Beauchamp! And I'm fifteen years old!" The kid, who was now dubbed as Vert and no longer a kid, shouted angrily. Tsukasa muttered a few curses under his breath, while Haruka looked mildly amused yet annoyed.

"Okay then. Can we leave now?" Haruka asked. Vert turned his glare to her.

"Don't you read the rules? If you meet another Trainer's eyes then you have to battle them!" Vert answered, crossing his arms. Haruka rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms as well.

"Fine, I'll battle you, you little squirt!" Vert glared harder at Haruka and shook his head.

"No! I want to battle the red-headed twit!"

"Well, you just punched him in the stomach. I'd say that you just incapitated him!" Haruka argued.

"I do agree that the shrimp punched me in the gut, and because of that I want to battle him. Also, I believe the word you are searching for is 'decapitated', and no he did not since I still have my head." Tsukasa spoke up. Now Haruka and Vert were both glaring at him.

"I don't care what the word is! You keep getting all the good battles!" If looks could kill, Tsukasa would be quite dead from the glares that he was recieving from both Vert and Haruka. Sakura, who was once again on Tsukasa's head, sighed.

"Alright, you mindless Human twits! I don't really give a crap who battles, so just play Janken or some other Human game! Sakura-Hime has spoken!" The egoistic Bellsprout shouted. Tsukasa, whose ear was right next to Sakura's screaming translator, felt like his ears were bleeding.

"Fine..." The two rookie Trainers agreed, and then started to play Janken.

"1, 2, shoot! Damn, best two out of three?" Haruka asked. Tsukasa shrugged, which resulted in an angry Sakura. Sakura didn't really like being jerked around.

"1, 2, shoot! Tch..."

"Tie breaker! 1, 2, shoot! Aha!" Haruka had won, and she was grinning madly. Tsukasa, on the other hand, was frowning. He knew he should've picked Rock instead of Paper...

Haruka grabbed Venin's Pokeball and followed Vert onto the battle field, while Tsukasa sat down in the bleachers. Haruka threw her Pokeball into the air, and it took the shape of the bat Pokemon.

"A Zubat, eh? Very well then! Go, Kimblee!" The Pokeball flew from the Junior's hands, and the red light formed the shape of a Dark and Flying bird type Pokemon. Tsukasa, pulled out his Pokedex, unsure of what the Pokemon was.

_"Murkrow, the Darkness Pokemon. This Pokemon will appear near Travelers to lure them into deep forests. It is said that seeing this Pokemon at night will bring an ominous occurrances. It was discovered in Johto, and can be seen in Sinnoh."_ - Tsukasa put his Pokedex into his pocket and returned his attention on the match.

"Kimblee, use Astonish and then follow up with Peck!" The Murkrow flew towards Venin, who bearly dodged the first attack and was struck by the second attack. Haruka cursed, and called out for an Astonish followed by a Wing Attack and a Bite. At such close range, the Astonish hit and Kimblee flinched, giving Venin enough time to use a Wing Attack and a Bite. The Astonish and Bite didn't do very much damage, but they managed to make the Murkrow flinch long enough for Venin to use Leech Life and restore some energy. Being both Dark and Flying, the Murkrow got normal damage from the Leech Life instead of a lower damage or a higher damage.

Kimblee shot a Wing Attack at Venin, who countered with a Bite to the Murkrow's left wing. Kimblee Screeched in pain, and was having a hard time staying up in the air due to Venin holding one of his wings. Haruka called out for a Leech Life, which Venin eagerly used. Kimblee, unable to keep flying, decided to stop flying all together and bring down Venin in a sort of "Death from Above" type strategy. Unfortunately, Venin realized what the Murkrow was going to do and released the Dark type Pokemon as they started to drop. Kimblee, due to all the damage, was promptly rendered unconscience. Haruka jumped into the air and cheered, and Tsukasa smirked.

"Oi, what's going on?" Everyone jumped at the new voice and turned their heads to the entrance.


	17. Enter: Ariana! Battle for the Gym Badge!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 16:** Enter Ariana! Battle for the Gym Badge!

Haruka and Tsukasa turned their eyes to the source of the voice, which had come from the door. There stood the brown haired Gym Leader, Ariana Pictora, and the Ariel Attack master of Violet City. The two rookie Trainers glanced at each other for a moment and then to Vert, who was grinning with a nervousness that was similar to a kid who'd just been caught in the cookie jar. Sadly, there were no cookies around.

"Err...Hello, Pictora-sama. I was just...uh.."Vert stumbled around with his words for a while until Tsukasa sighed and spoke for the short and somewhat annoying Trainer.

"He was just battling Haruka as a warm-up battle while we waited for you to come back." Ariana made a face that was almost like a pout at Tsukasa's answer.

"Vert-kun...I told you to send Crobat-chan if any challengers came! Aww..." Ariana crossed her arms, and now it was certain that she was pouting. Haruka sweatdropped at the Gym Leader's childishness. "Ahh, I know that you are Haruka, right Blue?" Haruka nodded, feeling somewhat annoyed at being nicknamed because of the color of her hair. "And what's your name, Red?"

"Tsukasa. Tsukasa Kurogane." Tsukasa replied. Ariana nodded, grinning, and then introduced herself.

"My name is Ariana Pictora, and I'm the Gym Leader of the Violet City Gym!"

"We know. Your picture and name was on the sign in front of the building." Haruka and Tsukasa replied in a unison deadpan. Ariana sweatdropped, and looked a bit disappointed.

"Aww, shaddup! You're here to battle me, correct?" The two Trainers nodded. "Very well, then! Let's go! I'll battle Red first!" Ariana exclaimed, pointing at Tsukasa dramatically. Tsukasa smirked as he got up and walked onto the field, while Haruka crossed her arms and pouted as she took Tsukasa's spot on the bleachers.

"Ne, ne. Your battle will most likely be harder, so don't be such a baby about battling order." Tsukasa said as he passed his pouting traveling companion. Haruka glared at him, which he returned with a smirk. And so Haruka's anger increases...

Tsukasa grabbed Jet's Pokeball off of his belt and threw it into the air as usual. It exploded and the semi-transparent light took the shape of the blue crocodile.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Jet is in da house!" Came the enthusiastic voice of Jet. Jet jumped eagerly from foot to foot, waiting for an order from tsukasa. Ariana smirked, and threw her own Pokeball into the air. The light took the shape of a small and common bird Pokemon. Pidgey.

Haruka pulled out her Pokedex, even though she knew a lot about the common Pokemon. She did need to collect data for the Pokedex, after all.

"A Pidgey? Is that all?" Tsukasa asked, looking a tad bit bored. If he could defeat a Squirtle, then this should be a piece of cake. Meanwhile, Ariana's smirk only grew bigger, and she pointed at Tsukasa's Pokemon.

"Alright, Flicker, use Gust and then follow up with a Tackle!" Ariana commanded. The tiny bird Pokemon nodded, and then started to flap its wings madly. Jet tried to get out of the way, but wasn't quick enough, and didn't notice the incoming bird until it was too late. Jet was slammed into, and the crocodile muttered a curse before Biting the tiny bird while it was in such a close range. He kept his fangs locked on to the bird, and then started to Scratch it. Ariana cursed, knowing that there were little attacks that she could tell Flicker to do in such a short range.

"Wing Attack!"

The tiny bird started to smack the crocodile on the head with its wings, and Jet released the bird in order to get away from the annoying wings. But Jet was quite good at long ranged combat as well, and sent a few good Water Guns at the Flying type, hoping to knock it out of the air in order to get another Bite or two in. The Pidgey managed to dodge a few of the Water Guns, but wasn't so lucky with some of the other blasts of water. While the Pidgey was busy trying to get all the offending water off of its feathers, Jet charged at the bird and hit it with a Bite, effectively dragging the bird down since it now had to carry roughly twenty pounds of dead weight.

Jet managed to flip his body around so that the Pidgey would land down first, and used a tactic that Vert's Murkrow had tried: Death from Above. The crocodile slammed his two feet into the Pidgey's back, and the bird cried out. It wasn't use to having something almost five times its weight on its back. And it really didn't help when Jet started to dance on Flicker's back...

Eventually, Ariana recalled the bird Pokemon, tired of watching it be squashed by Tsukasa's Totodile. Tsukasa, knowing he had won, smirked and headed back to the bleachers while Haruka walked down the steps, now a bit nervous since it was her first Gym battle. Seriously, how did Tsukasa manage to keep his cool...? But then again, Tsukasa had simply let Jet battle the Pidgey without giving a single order. Haruka fingered Byrn's Pokeball nervously, and hoped that her starter Pokemon would be strong enough to defeat the Gym Leader's next Pokemon, which was most defenetly going to be stronger than the first.

Ariana was not smiling, and was now instead frowning angrily. She threw her Pokeball into the air, and as promised, a stronger bird emerged from the Pokeball. It was Pidgeotto, Pidgey's much stronger and heavier evolution. Haruka pressed the button on her Pokeball, and Byrn was once again forced into the ring of battle.

"Ehh? Battle? Again? Good Celebi, woman! Don't you ever use any other Pokemon _besides_ me?" Byrn asked, obviously annoyed. Haruka smiled a bit at the Cyndaquil's irritance.

"Well, I let Venin battle against Vert over there." Haruka replied, a bit smug, jabbing her thumb in the area where Vert was located, which was on the sidelines of the field. Byrn gave an annoyed growl, but was otherwise silent.

"Periodite, use Quick Attack!" Ariana called, making the first move once again. The Pidgeotto nodded, and then made a quick dive aimed at the small fire mouse. Haruka swore, and told Byrn to roast the incoming bird, which he eagerly did. Byrn may not of been fond of fighting, but he was even less fond of being in pain. Thus, the incoming Pidgeotto was hit by a nice stream of Ember. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the bird and only made it Screech a bit and make its Quick Attack a lot deadlier. Anyone in the mood for turkey?

Haruka and Byrn dived to oppisite sides to avoid the now flaming mad Pidgeotto. Man, that bird had a hot aim! Okay, the crappy puns end now...The flaming bird of doom started rolling around on the ground, trying to put itself out. It was actually pretty funny, and the event had Tsukasa laughing his head off. Nothing is funnier than a Pidgeotto rolling around on the ground, trying to get itself in a not-on-fire state. Byrn decided to take this chance to hit the flaming birdie with a Quick Attack of his own. And the Pidgeotto was too busy trying to get itself fire-free to notice...

All in all, the two Trainers left the Gym with two Zypher Badges in tow. Tsukasa was amused and a bit disappointed, hoping that all Gyms wouldn't be this weak. Haruka was still a bit confused on what exactly had happened. Ariana, who was back at the Gym, was pissed.

All in all, it was a nice and normal second day of their journey.

_I have nothing to say about this chapter, aside from the fact that it was a rather pathetic victory for Haruka. And Byrn is a lazy, lazy Pokemon. xD_


	18. Stupid Tsukasa!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 17:** Stupid Tsukasa!

The two Trainers picked up a few items at the PokéMart with their recently obtained money. The two also learned something new: the more badges you had, the lower the price of items. Sure, it wasn't much of a price drop, only 5 Poké, but when you added that up over time, you actually saved quite a deal. After their little shopping spree at the PokéMart, they headed towards the PokéCenter to make sure that their Pokémon were in tip-top shape and to grab some food to-go before they headed off to their net destination: the Ruins of Alph.

The quickly picked up their food (Sakura wanted potato soup, however, so they had to wait a bit longer), and set off for Route 36. After fifteen minutes of walking through Violet City, they arrived in Route 36 and walked down the path that led towards the Ruins. As they walked past the fork in the road that led towards the Ruins, Tsukasa mildly noted that the path to Route 37 and the National Park was blocked by what looked like a tree. _Looks like we won't be taking any short cuts to Goldenrod or Ecruteak City anytime soon._ Tsukasa thought as he followed his traveling partner, who was at the moment jumping from foot to foot eagerly, almost like Jet would before a fight started.

Five minutes after the fork in the road, the spotted the Traveler's Gate that stood between Route 36 and the Ruins of Alph. The quickly passed through it, flashing their Trainer Cards that were installed into their PokéDexs to the guards.

The Ruins of Alph looked interesting enough on the outside of the main attractions, so what exactly would they look like on the _inside_? The two rookie Trainers scouted the outside of the Ruins first. There were, apparently, two entrances that were acessable by land, but there was another entrance that you had to get to by water. After a while, Tsukasa decided to let his Pokémon see the Ruins, and released Jet, Kouda, and Blinde from their Pokéballs. And then he spent about five minutes trying to get the somewhat annoying Bellsprout pryed off of his head.

Haruka followed suit, and the two Pokémon Trainers walked off to the building that was closest to where they entered the Ruins of Alph. The inside of the building looked very old, and there was a little platform in the middle of the room. The group of Trainers and Pokémon stared at the walls in awe, before Tsukasa felt like his eyes were bleeding and walked over to the platform to see what it was all about.

The platform had an odd little plate with pieces lying all around it, and a description next to it. But the description was too faded and old to read, even if it had been carved in stone.

Haruka noted that Tsukasa wasn't staring in awe at the wall anymore, and she spotted him looking at the platform.

"Oi, whatcha doing?" Haruka asked as she walked over, looking at the illegible description and the tiles.

"Un...It's kind of like a puzzle..." Tsukasa mused, staring at the tiles and not noticing that Haruka was standing behind him. Haruka raised an eyebrow, but kept quite as Tsukasa started to put the pieces together. "If this goes here...Then this goes here...And then..." Tsukasa slid the final piece into place as the Pokemon were coming over to see what their Trainers were doing, and felt like someone had pulled the carpet out from underneith him. Unfortunately, there was no carpet, only a trap door.

"Ahrg!" Haruka grabbed Tsukasa's hand as he started to fall, but her footing wasn't very good as she started to slide over to the hole due to all of Tsukasa's weight. Jet noticed this, and glomped Haruka's leg in an attempt to keep her from falling. This effort was in vain, however, because it only succeded in pushing Haruka down the hole. Venin, Feuille, and Sakura quickly got into action, with Feuille and Sakura attempting to pull the two Trainers plus Jet up the hole and Venin pulling Haruka by the hair. Needless to say, this caused many swears to come out of Haruka's mouth, and Tsukasa got a few head wounds due to her kicking aimlessly.

Blinde and Slate (well, mostly Blinde) started to panic because they couldn't really do anything, being all ghost-like and such, and Kouda used a String Shot to help Feuille and Sakura pull the two Trainers up. Raft sighed, not really wanting to help, but didn't want to suffer 3rd degree burns due to the mouse who was glaring at him, and grabbed Sakura to weigh her down. Byrn did the same to Feuille, and they started to pull up their two Trainers.

This would have worked if for not these three reasons: Venin lost his grip, Sakura and Feuille were not expecting the sudden glomp and lost some of their grip, and no one was holding down Kouda. Haruka screamed bloody murder as she fell, and Tsukasa was panicking more than he had been before, since the effects of Haruka's kicks were wearing off. And since Feuille and Sakura still had a grip on the two Trainers, they were pulled down into the hole as well as their passengers and Kouda.

Venin flapped his way up to the two Ghastly, somewhat annoyed that he couldn't keep his grip and that his Trainer was lost in the black abyss of the hole. Slate glanced at Blinde and Venin expecantly, before sighing.

"Does this mean we have to go after them?" He asked, bored and annoyed. Blinde gave him a dry look, before rolling her eyes and floating down into the abyss. Venin, if he had eyes, would have been glaring at the ghost, but simply sighed and followed Blinde, keeping a lock on her with his Supersonic.

"I'll take that for a yes..." Slate muttered, a bored expression appearing on his face as he floated after Blinde and Venin.


	19. Down the Rabbit Hole We Go!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 18:** Down the Rabbit Hole We Go!

"Tsu-ka-sa!!" Haruka screeched. Tsukasa, who was currently sweatdropping, backed away from his now somewhat homicidal traveling partner, laughing nervously. Their Pokemon, minus Slate, Venin, and Blinde, watched in mild amusement and fear.

"It wasn't my fault!" Tsukasa argued, still moving away from Haruka. "How the hell was I suppose to know that we'd fall down a hole? And it was your Pokemon that caused us to fall down here anyways!"

"No, it was your reckless idiocy!"

"Again, how the hell was I suppose to know? It wasn't as if there was a warning sign!"

"Common sense! Don't you watch televison?!"

"No, I was too busy!"

"Well then make time!"

"Why should I? You aren't my Mom!"

"And you ought to be thankful for that!" Byrn glanced at Jet, who returned the dry gaze.

"Should we stop them?" The Fire-Type mouse asked the blue crocodile.

"We might as well. They might kill each other, and as funny as that'd be, we might not be able to get out of here."

"Very well then." Byrn took a big gulp of air, and sent a nice Ember at Haruka, who just barely saw it in time to get away. Unfortunately, her hair wasn't as lucky and so she had to ask Raft to use Water Gun. Meanwhile, Jet sent a decent-sized Water Gun at his own Trainer, who was too busy glaring at Haruka and got himself soaked.

"What was that for?!" Tsukasa asked angrily.

"You two were acting like idiots. That, and we need to find a way out of here pronto before this place runs out of air." Jet replied, shrugging. Byrn nodded, and the two Trainers sighed.

"Fine. We'll look for an exit..." Haruka said, defeated and angry. She started to exit the current room, and some of her team followed. Tsukasa followed as well, with a much slower and lazy pace.

"So...You think we're going to die down here?" Feuille asked Raft, trying to be a bit more hopeful now that the two Trainers were actually not trying to kill each other and attempting to get along.

"With these two idiots, we have a high chance." Raft replied, before lazily following after the two Trainers. Feuille sighed, and trudged on behind the pessimistic blue crocodile.

The next room was not much different from the previous room, with hieroglyphics lining the walls in their odd fashion, a few random pillars so that the above floor wouldn't collapse, and another door to a different room. Haruka glanced around the room for a few minutes, before walking into the next room, while her Pokemon stayed back to admire the hieroglphics. Tsukasa walked up to one of the walls and stared at them for a few minutes, trying to see if he could form any words from the odd alphabelt-like hieroglyphics. Eventually Jet came up and tugged on his pants, and they left the room, following Haruka once more.

This next room was more like a hallway, with no pillars and a narrow walkway, but the hieroglyphics still lined the walls. Haruka murmured something about traps, and told them all to be careful about where and how they stepped on the tiles. Tsukasa rolled his eyes and trudged on uncaringly, and it turned out that Haruka had worried for nothing as they walked into the next room without much difficulty.

This room was different from the other rooms, however. The hieroglyphics were not on the walls this time, but the floors. On the other side of the room was another hole, and there didn't seem to be any other exits to the room.

Tsukasa walked towards the west wall and stared at the hieroglyphics from the middle, trying to deciper them once more.

"W...a...t...a...s...h...i...t...a...c...h...i...Watashitachi? We? I...c...h...i...z...o...k...u...Ichizoku? Relatives? We relatives...K...o...t...o...b...a...Kotoba? We relatives speech? Unkay..."

"What's he doing?" Haruka asked, confused.

"I think he's trying to figure out what the letter-things mean." Kouda replied. Haruka nodded uncertainly.

"K...o...k...o...n...i...Kokoni? Individually? We relatives speech individually? This makes no sense...K...i...z...a...m...u...Kizamu? Engrave? We relatives speech individually engrave? Okay, this makes no sense. We relative words individually engrave? Now that's just more confusing...Maybe it isn't in Japanese..." Tsukasa went through his bag and pulled out a notepad, and copied down the hieroglyphics as best as he could, and put it in his pocket.

"So...Now what?" Tsukasa asked. Haruka shrugged, and walked over to the hole. Tsukasa followed her, and all the Pokemon crowded around her.

"Hey...Whatcha guys doing?" Haruka screamed at the unexpected voice, and nearly fell into the hole. She grabbed Tsukasa, who let out a startled 'hey!', and Haruka dragged him over the hole. Feuille and Sakura quickly used Vine Whip to grab hold of them once again, and Kouda sent out a String Shot. "Oops. Looks like I screwed up again." Venin said, scratching the back of his head with his foot, and went down to grab Haruka and Tsukasa as the other Pokemon glared at him.

Slate and Blinde passed through the ceiling, effectively scaring the crap out of the other

Pokemon enough to make them let go of their Trainers. They were dragged down into the hole, and left Venin, Slate, and Blinde sweatdropping as Byrn, Jet, and Raft sighed and jumped odwn the hole.

"Crap..." Blinde muttered, staring at the hole.

"Crap indeed."

"Down the rabbit hole we go."

_Getting closer to more recent arcs, which means I'm going to have start writing again. xD I lost my notebook with the original newest chapter, but somehow it vanished. Oh well, that chapter sucked anyways._


	20. Holy Crap, They're Alive!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 19:** Holy crap, they're alive!

"Okay, this time it **wasn't** my fault." Tsukasa said in a somehow defensive and yet smug tone."This time it was all **your** Pokemon's fault, as well as your own fault."

Haruka glared at the red-head dangerously."Oh, shut it, Tsukasa!" She cried, wanting nothing more than to rip his throat out.

"Hell no! Apologize first!"

"No way! Why should I?!"

"Yes! You needlessly yelled at me, and now you won't pay for your actions!"

"Feh, as if! It's your fault we got in the first hole in the first place!"

"Yeah, but it was your Pokemon's fault for letting go, as well as scaring the crap out of you. Not to mention you dragged me down here as well!"

"There ain't no way in **hell** that I'm apologizing to you!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes you are!"

"No I'm not!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Where are we?" They looked at the Pokemon who had spoken. It was Feuille, who was looking around curiously, but also as if there was danger lurking in every corner. And considering the fact that this place was most likely centuries old, there might be. The room in question was different than the pevious room, as it didn't seem to have any doors, just large holes in the wall that seemed stable. There were also statues of Pokemon along the walls, manly Flying type Pokemon. The ever-present hieroglyphics were also there, but unlike the previous room they were on the walls instead of the floor.

"Huh. I really dunno." Tsukasa replied quietly, and walked up to one of the statues. He stared at it for a long while, his head resting in his palm, and a curious expression on his face.

Haruka giggled. He looked so funny and stupid like that! Tsukasa broke his gaze from the statue, and gave the blue-haired Trainer a dry stare.

"What, you see something you like?" Tsukasa asked, his voice full of smug sarcasm and a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Say what?!" Haruka screeched, preparing for another verbal fight with the red-head. "You looked so stupid like that that it was funny!" Tsukasa rolled his eyes, scoffing.

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Blue." Tsukasa replied, amused, and turned his attention back to the statue of what he assumed was a Pidgeot.

"Uhg, you are so infuriating!" Haruka cried, throwing her hands up into the air.

"And you know you love it!" Tsukasa replied, not bothering to hide his smug amusement. Haruka brought her fists down to her sides, clenching them tightly and anger evident in her eyes. She absent-mindedly cracked her knuckles, and attempted to hit the infuriating red-head. Unfortunately for Haruka, however, Tsukasa had sensed the near murderous aura behind him and had the sense to duck, thus causing Haruka's fist to miss and go straight into the statue. Haruka howled in pain, and brought her now bleeding hand back to her, and attemtped in vain to soothe the pain.

Tsukasa stood up, and had a somewhat annoyed but amused frown on his face. "Tch. Don't be so reckless. You think I don't know when someone wants to hurt me? I've had my share of bullies, y'know. Not only that, but...You damaged the statue. And your hand is most likely broken." Haruka glared at Tsukasa, who had shoved his hands into his pockets and was now somewhat staring into space.

_Should I be more worried about the statue, Haruka's hand, or my own personal safety?_ Tsukasa mused, unsure of his next course of action. _Meh, it's her own fault for not being able to handle a bit of teasing, but we should get out of here and make sure that it doesn't get infected or any of that crap. And it won't do any good if her hand is broken...Wasn't that her dominant hand?_

Tsukasa was too preoccupied with his own thoughs to realize that Haruka was currently screaming, and this time it was not because of the pain, but instead of the horror of what was happening behind him. Tsukasa was finally brought out by a Water Gun from Jet, and then stared at Haruka dryly, but then turned his head around when she started pointing at something located behind him.

Tsukasa slowly turned his head, mildly wondering how exactly this day could go worse, when something flew in front of his face. Tsukasa took a step backwards, startled. "What the hell wa...?" Was all he could get out before he saw what exactly was scaring Haruka so much. The hieroglyphics were _coming straight off the wall_, and were turning into _living, breathing_ creatures. Tsukasa took in a sharp breath, and let out his own cry before he started to scramble away.

"What the hell is going on?!" He cried, and Kouda was unsure if that was terror or disgust on his face.

What the hell _was_ going on?!

_So many short chapters...DX_


	21. Heiroglyphic Battle!

_**Johto**_

**Chapter 20:** Hieroglyphic Battle!

Tsukasa jumped back as another one of the living hieroglyphics flew towards him. He muttered a curse as he had to dodge another one that aimed at his feet. "Why the hell are they all coming towards me?!"

"I don't know, but you sure as hell deserve it!" Haruka shot back angrily. Tsukasa dodged to the left as another hieroglyphic came to life and flew towards him.

"Oh, come on! Grow up, you immature, bi-ploar twit!" Another one flew towards him, and he kicked it away. Haruka growled angrily, but said and did nothing. "Jet, use Water Gun on the wall!" Jet took in a deep breath of air, and released a large jet of water from his mouth. It hit the wall, and it pressed a hieroglyphic that was attempting to come to life back into the wall.

"Alright! Kouda, use String Shot and slam those two into each other!" Kouda sent out a String Shot and aimed it a hieroglyphic that was shaped sort of like a tower. It attached to Eifle, and Kouda tugged on the rope and forced the whip-like web to slam Eifle into an 'O' shaped hieroglyphic. They rammed into the wall, which gave off a purple light as the two hieroglyphics were sucked back into the wall.

"Byrn, use Ember! Feuille, use Vine Whip like Kouda used his String Shot!" Haruka commanded, deciding to get involved as well and help Tsukasa out.

"Bree...Bree.." The hieroglyphics said in an uncaring and song-like drone.

"Sakura, do as Feuille is doing!" Tsukasa cried, before dodging another hieroglyphic. The hieroglyphics were coming out of the wall faster and faster, and Tsukasa and Haruka couldn't get them back in fast enough.

"That's Sakura-HIME!" Sakura shouted back as she sent a few vines at the hieroglyphics.

"Bree...Bree..."

"Uhg...If only Blinde and Slate were here!" Haruka whined.

"What, don't care about cute lil' Venin?" Came a voice, and the bat Pokemon latched itself onto a hieroglyphic with a Bite.

"Venin! Where are Blinde and Slate?" Haruka asked in a panicked voice. Venin visably shrunk. Poor, poor Venin...

"Right here!" Slate cried as he sent out a Night Shade. Behind him, the blue Ghastly known as Blinde used a Lick on a hieroglyphic.

"Great! We're all here!" Haruka exclaimed happily, and dodged a hieroglyphic that had been hurtling towards her. That was odd...All the other hieroglyphics had only attacked Tsukasa...And now they were coming for Haruka! "Crap...Raft, use Water Gun! Byrn, use Ember!" The streams of fire and water techniques struck the hieroglyphics that were charging at Haruka, and they vanished in a purple light.

"Blinde, use Hypnosis! Jet, use Bite!" Tsukasa shouted, noticing the hierogyphics were hurtling towards Haruka. Damn, this was just an all-out battle Royale! Blinde sent out a Hypnosis at a hieroglyphic, and Jet slammed into it at the last moment. Tsukasa cursed, and grabbed a Pokeball from his belt. Jet would only get hurt if he stayed out here while he was asleep.

Just as Tsukasa was pressing the button, a hieroglyphic slammed into his back due to a minor accident on the part of Sakura. Instead of the light hitting Jet, it hit the hieroglyphic and it was sucked into the red and white orb. Tsukasa stared in disbelief at the Pokeball in his unaware of the heiroglyphic on his back.

Raft noticed it, however, and sent a Water Gun at the unsuspecting Tsukasa. Tsukasa dropped the Pokeball in his shock of being soaked by the ice-cold water that flew from Raft's mouth.

Haruka ran over to Tsukasa and picked up the dropped Pokeball. "You okay?" She asked. Yet another sign of her bi-polar additude.

"Yeah, I think so...We've got to get out of here, and quick!" Tsukasa spoke quickly, nodding. He grabbed a Pokeball from his belt and returned Jet. "Let's get out of here!" He returned the rest of his Pokemon and took the Pokeball from Haruka. Haruka had also returned her Pokemon, wincing at her still hurting hand that she had forgotten about temporarily. Now that she remembered, however, the pain was back. And it hurt like hell.

"Let's go! We can get out this way!" Haruka exclaimed, pointing to a large hole in the wall with her non-injured hand. Tsukasa nodded curtly, and ran after his blue-haired travelling partner out of the warzone.

The next 'room' was no different than the last, with hieroglyphics flying wildly around the room.

There was another hole n the wall, and the two rookie Trainers could see a pair of feet hanging out of it...

_Another short chapter. o.e I swear, I'm making the next chapters longer. I don't care if it takes me two hours or more...o.e_


	22. Schitzo Much?

_**Johto**_

**Disclaimer:** See previous chapters before I sic Saiko on your ass. DX (Ahh...the old disclaimer threats...I found this one actually amusing, so I decided I'd keep it. After this, though, no more disclaimers. :P )

**Chapter 21:** Schitzo much...?

Haruka and Tsukasa ran towards the hole with the pair of feet sticking out of it, ducking and doging the flying hieroglyphics.

"Agrg!" Haruka cried as she dove to duck yet another flying hieroglyphic. Tsukasa mentally chuckled, but soon had to duck his own gang of hieroglyphics. They made it over towards the hole, and Haruka gasped. "Holy crap! Is he okay?!"

"Since when is crap holy?" Tsukasa asked dryly, and Haruka glared at him. Tsukasa sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Right...Anyways, check if he's breathing or not. Crap!" Tsukasa ducked as another one came hurtling towards him, and Haruka openly laughed. Tsukasa glowered at his blue-haired traveling partner, and she reluctantly started to check if the man was breathing.

He was pretty old compared to Haruka and Tsukasa, looking about seventy with grey hair and a grey beard, as welll as Eastern-Sinnoh style clothing like the monk they had seen earlier that day. Haruka mentally hoped that he wouldn't have that horrible Eastern-Sinnoh accent...One cowboy a day was enough, thank you very much!

Suddenly, the old man sat up, and Haruka jumped back from her kneeling position into a crouching position.

"Thees heer plauce has uh maughty curauzy at-most-fear!" The old man cried, and Haruka mentally deadpaned. Aww, crap...

"Joyous." Tsukasa said sarcastically, his face a deadpan.

"Well hai theer, keddes! I did-unt see yah theer!"

"Shut up, or I'm killing you." Tsukasa replied, clearly already annoyed. Poor, poor Tsukasa...

The man suddenly shifted, and even his clothes seemd to change before the two Trainers' very eyes.

"Well, my good sir, you ought to learn to respect your elders!" He said in a mixture of a scoff and a snort, and Tsukasa blinked slowly before moving.

**THWAP!!**

"Silence, mortal." Sakura said in an annoyed voice, just now breaking free from her Pokeball. Haruka gave Tsukasa a dry look, but he just shrugged. It was Sakura who had hit him with the Vine Whip, not Tsukasa. He may have been rude, but he didn't hit old men, even if they were anoying.

"Ah say...Ah say...Whutchooo dun dat for, yuh lil' plunt...vuh-an..thing!" The old man cried in a new accent. Haruka and Tsukasa blinked in surprise and looked at each other, confused. Sakura climbed up Tsukasa and used Vine Whip to knock away any and all hieroglyphics that floated too close towards them.

"Is he one of those multipul personality dudes?" Haruka asked, confused. Tsukasa shrugged, and Sakura screeched at the sudden movement.

"Oi! Watch it, you foolish Human! Sakura-Hime is very fragile and deserves respect!" Sakura scolded, and Tsukasa sighed.

"Yes, Sakura-_Hime_..." Tsukasa replied in somewhat annoyed sarcasm.

"Ah say...Ah _say_! Dun't yah duhair talk luh-ike I un't heer!" The old man screeched, and he was rewarded with a Vine Whip from Sakura. "Ah thunk ah puhfuh be-un ignoruh-d..." He mutter, and Sakura Vine Whipped him again.

"Shut up, you old coot! You are in the presence of the great Sakura-Hime! You may only speak when spoken to! Well, unless you happen to be Tsukasa, which you aren't."

"Why are you so violent, oh great Sakura-Hime?" The old man asked in a new accent. What was up with this guy? But hey, at least this one sounded more respectful.

"Well why do you keep changing how you talk?!" Sakura yelled back, and struck a nearby hieroglyphic in emphasis, which flew into a wall with a nice 'thud'. Poor, poor hieroglyphic-thingermajig...

"Y'know what? We should get out of here before Haruka gets herself hurt again. Quit yelling at the crazy old man and help us get out of these ruins!" Tsukasa cried, urgency in his voice, while Haruka glared at him for acting like it was her fault she got hurt. Well, it was...

"I'm not crazy..." The old man muttered sadly, before he realized what else Tsukasa had said. "Wait...did you say Haruka? And ruins?" Tsukasa nodded (which caused Sakura to screech once more), and the old man gasped. "Oh, dear...This is not good!"

"Why isn't that good, old man?" Haruka asked, her forgotten annoyance coming back at rapid speeds. Tsukasa apparently sensed the in-coming danger and back himself up against the hole's doorway, which caused a few Pokemon curses from Sakura.

"Are you 'Tsukasa', then?" The old man asked catiously, and Tsukasa nodded as the old man looked around, growing more panicked as he couldn't find what he was looking for. "Where are Reneé and Kaylin? Where are Kuro and--"

"Whaaaat..? Who are those people? Haruka asked, no thuroughly confused. The old man gaped at Haruka, shock written all over his face

"You...you do not know of them?" He asked, and Haruka shok her head while Tsukasa merely rose an eyebrow. Psychopath..."Oh...Oh my! I am too soon! Or perhaps this one is different..?"

"What are you talking about, old man? Start making sense!" Tsukasa growled, irritated by the old man's inability to make sense. The old man sighed and his shoulders slumped, making him look defeated.

"Very well, then. I understand that I am probbably not making much sense out of this." He sighed regretfully, and then started to speak once more. "In any case, I might as well tell you. You two will...Uhrg!" The old man clutched his head, and looked like he was in pain.

"Hey, are you alright?!" Haruka asked, panicking, and Tsukasa was startled at the events.

"No...Not now! I refuse...to let...you have control!" The old man screeched, amd shook his head. Tsukasa's eyes widend as his hands dropped from his head, and the old man slowly looked at Haruka.

"Beware of Mother Earth!" He screeched, and a hieroglyphic slammed into his head, effectively causing him to pass out.

"Oops! Missed one!" Came the voice of the Bellsprout on top of Tsukasa's head.

"Sakura!" Tsukasa scolded in a mildly annoyed and defeated tone, and slammed his face with his hand. Can you say facepalm?

"Hime!"

"Just shut up and help us move him, will you?"

_Hahah, epic foreshadowing cut-off by Sakura. :P Hmm...I didn't realize I added an accent on Reneé's name. Oh well. Reneé it shall be. o3o This ends all the pre-written chapters, which means you all get to suffer through me learning how to retype. Yays!! :D As of now, I am looking for a beta who doesn't mind going through all my silly drabble. o3o If you're interested, I'll add it on my profile. Or if you're too lazy to look there, add me at at yahoo dot com and add me on YIM. :D I'd prefer the latter, because sometimes I'm too lazy to go through the 's site._


	23. Pokedex Upgrade! Yochi in Union Cave!

_**Johto**_

Alright! First new chapter I get to write! Let's do this shit! :D

**Chapter 22:** Pokedex Upgrade! Yochi in Union Cave!

"Good Sakura, this Human is heavy!" Sakura complained as she and Feuille tugged the unconscious old man through the cave. Feuille agreed, but didn't want to say so outright. _You must not show any sign of weakness! You must be brave! You must be better than Sakura!_ She thought as she pulled him along, following Haruka and Tsukasa. Byrn was being carried by Haruka, and Venin was latched on to Haruka's hat. Kouda mimicked Venin, latching onto Tsukasa's head. Blinde and Slate talked animatedly about the differences in their lifestyles, having been raised in different but close locations. Jet danced around Raft, who was seemingly warming up to his Totodile brother.

"Don't worry, you can handle it Sakura-Hime!" Feuille encouraged with a smile. Sakura gave a slight smile back.

"That is true, fellow Leafian! The great Sakura-Hime can do anything she wants to!" Tsukasa chuckled, and pulled out a Pokeball from his belt. Meanwhile, Feuille sweatdropped at her new title. _Leafian? What the heck is that?_

"Y'know, I kinda want to see what this thing actually does." Tsukasa said, and Haruka grinned.

"Yeah, at least something came out of all this. But we gotta wait until we get to the PokeCenter. My hand is really starting to hurt." Byrn poked Haruka's wrist, and she yelped. Byrn chuckled, while Venin looked mildly dishelved. He was on top of her head, after all, and felt every minor movement she made.

"Fine, fine." Tsukasa stopped, and peered over one of the edges of the hallways. They had been in the hallway for about ten minutes after they found the old man, having fled the last room after the heiroglyphics started rapidly appearing. "Hey, I see a door over here. C'mon, it looks like it leads outdoors!" He announced, and a large grin broke out over everyone's face.

"Seriously?! Sweet! Let's go!" Came the enthusiastic cry from Haruka, and she ran out over to where Tsukasa was pointing. "Yeah, yeah! It goes outside!" Venin latched onto her head tighter, while Byrn started struggling against Haruka's arms.

"Gah! You're suffocating me! Lemme go, nowwww!" Byrn whined as he tried to move away from her tight grip.

"Oops, sorry Byrn." Haruka murmured, and relaxed her hold on the mouse. "C'mon, it's pretty dark out now. We should hurry and take Ojii-san to the PokeCenter and get my hand checked on."

"I'm game for that." Tsukasa replied, pulling out his Pokeballs. "Alright, anyone want a rest?"

"Nah, I'm just dandy dandy dandy~!" Came Jet's enthusiastic reply as he twirled around.

"I'm also fine, thank you very much however Tsukasa." Kouda answered, but he crawled down to the ground. "I believe we have another Human approaching, however." Kouda nodded to the approaching Scientist.

"You two! Are you okay? We heard reports of two Trainers vanishing that meet your description!" He asked, seeming a bit rushed.

"Yeah, we're fine. But Haruka hurt her hand in an act of stupidity and Ojii-san was knocked unconscious." Raft replied, crossing his paws over his chest.

"Oh my...What happened to him?" The Scientist asked, just now noticing the old man lying on the ground who had his arms and legs wrapped in vines.

"A magical symbol knocked him unconscious. Sakura-chan was suppose to be keeping watch for them, but she missed one." Venin replied, ruffling his wings. Sakura gaped at him and pointed her vines and him, making numerous threats in a language none of them but Feuille understood. Or at least that was the implication, since Feuille's green face was currently turning quite red. Venin sweatdropped, muttering "What? It's the truth..."

The Scientist just stood there, gawking at the group. The group stared back at the Scientist, all except for Sakura who was still shrieking at Venin and Feuille, who was looking at her feet like they were the hottest form of entertainment. "You...You saw the Unown?" He finally choked out, sounding very surprised.

"Yeah. Tsukasa even caught one. Why? What's the big deal?" Haruka asked, tilting her head to the side and looking quite confused. Venin, startled, fell off and barely avoided hitting the ground. Then he had to avoid a vine that Sakura threw at him, and he flew so Haruka would shield him from the vines. Meanwhile, Sakura finally stopped swearing...

"Oh my god...That is...M-may I see it?" He stuttered out. Tsukasa scratched his head, and pulled out the Pokeball that held the "Unown".

"Uhh...Sure...?" He pressed the button, and the heiroglyphic appeared. It was shaped like an "A", and the antenae on the top of its head twitched. Tsukasa dug through his bag, looking for a translator, while the Unown was gaped at by the Scientist. Eventually, Tsukasa found the translator and attached it to the Unown's neck-area. Or at least what Tsukasa assumed was the neck area.

"Oh...my...Arceus...You actually managed to capture a living specimen." The Scientist ruffled through his many pockets on his lab coat, before finding two sheets of paper. "Umm...Tsukasa, was it?"

"Yeah. And the blue-haired one is Haruka." Tsukasa said, pointing at Haruka.

"Right." The Scientist pushed up his glasses. "May I borrow the Unown for about ten minutes so I can get a DNA scan?"

"I guess, if it's alright with the Unown." Tsukasa replied, looking at the Unown. And so did everyone else. The Unown looked around nervously, before hiding behind Tsukasa.

"A-ano...If it's a-alright with T-tsukasa-sama t-then I guess..." The Unown murmured shyly. The Scientist beamed.

"Alright! First off, what's your name?"

"M-my n-name?" The Scientist nodded, and the Unown looked down. " My n-name is 56129343923667873." Haruka and Tsukasa sweatdropped, while the Scientist enthusiastically wrote it down. "B-but...If Tsu-tsukasa-sama wishes to rename m-me...I am o-okay with that."

"Yeah...I'm gonna name you Effie..." Tsukasa muttered, and "Effie" beamed at her new name.

"T-thank you, Tsu-tsukasa-sama. I am over-joyed to n-not be a n-number anymore." Effie cheerfully stated, her antenae moving around happily. The Scientist quickly jotted all of this down.

"Will you follow me, please? This will only take a few minutes."

"Tsukasa, you should take your Pokemon and go with Effie. Me and the others will take Ojii-san to the Pokemon Center." Haruka suggested, and Tsukasa nodded. The sooner Haruka got her hand checked and the sooner the old man was safe, the better.

"Right. You take Sakura --"

"HIME!!"

"And the old man to the Pokemon Center, we'll go with him." Tsukasa looked at the Scientist and asked if he had a spare sheet of paper. The Scientist handed a sheet over and Tsukasa wrote down his PokeGear number and ripped it in half, handing the sheet with his number on it to Haruka while she wrote down her number. "See you in a bit."

"Yup!" Haruka took the sheet of paper and put in Tsukasa's number, before starting towards Violet.

"Wait, no, leave me your Pokedex." The Scientist quickly said. Haruka gave him a confused look.

"Huh? Why?"

"I'll upgrade it for you. It'll list all the Unown that you capture or see!" Haruka blinked as the odd Scientist started to beg her. She sweatdropped, and handed the Pokedex over.

"Just give it back to Tsukasa when you're done. See you later, guys." And with that, Haruka ran off towards Violet with Feuille and Sakura ("HIME!!") dragging the old man. Tsukasa and Effie followed the Scientist to whever he was going.

Elsewhere...

Yochi settled down in the Pokemon Center. She was going to wait another day before checking Soffio's progress in Azalea. She had gotten quite a lot of training in today, battling the new Trainers around Route 32. And Skitty had managed to impress Tarlach some. Quite the good day.

Yochi took out her PokeGear and pulled up a list of new Trainers. She ran down the list until she spotted an interesting pair.

_I should wait for them to get here._

_Annddddd! Chapter end! Yochi is going to appear officially here soon, only three more chapters. :D_


	24. Elm's Assistant! The Egg and the GS Ball

_**Johto**_

_Last chapter was rather odd...On another note, I saw a yuri picture with the caption "YURI: because men are over-rated" and lol'd. I'm bi, so I highly disagree with the "are over-rated" part. But it still amuses me. :D_

**Chapter 23:** Elm's Assistant! The Egg and the GS Ball!

Haruka walked quietly to the Pokemon Center, taking in the beauty of the Route to Violet City and the night sky she never saw outside New Bark Town until last night. There weren't any street lamps, making the road creepy and yet more beautiful. The sounds were magnified by the lack of light, and yet the stars and the moon were so much more pretty than she remembered from her bedroom window. She heard Hoothoot and Noctowl calling to each other, and saw the Spinarak and Ariados crawling in the trees and making their webbed nests.

Alongside her flew Venin and Slate, and behind her walked Byrn and Raft. Feuille and Sakura tugged on the old man, dragging him along with not as much effort as before. It all seemed so tranquil compaired to the oddness of the rest of the day. They had reached the Pokemon Center early in the morning, after exploring a cave and battling some spunky Trainers. Then after they'd rested some, they went to Sprout Tower and gained some new companions. And then there was their first Gym battle...Ariana seemed fun, but odd. The ruins were interesting to visit...But the entire journey that ensued after they got to the ruins was _just plain weird_.

"Call from: Prof. Elm." Haruka jumped, startled as her PokeGear started going off. She quickly answered it, while the Pokemon seemed to be mildly interested.

"Hello?" She asked timidly, wondering how he got her number and why he was calling.

"Haruka, go to the Violet City Pokemon Center as soon as possible. My assistant there will be there to deliver the items to you. Since you're on your way to Azalea, I figured it would be a good time to catch you now so my assistant could get back. So hurry up. We have eggs to study." Elm barked, and Haruka sweatdropped.

"Umm...okay. I was already on my way there, anyways."

"Well _hurry_." There was a click, and it was apparent that Elm had hung up on her. Haruka sweatdropped once more, feeling a bit annoyed by his lack of manners.

"Alright guys, we've got to pick up the pace so Elm's assistant can get back to New Bark and help Elm." Haruka informed, and started punching in Tsukasa's number into her PokeGear. They resumed walking, at a slightly quicker pace, while the dialing tone rang. Eventually Tsukasa picked up.

"Miss me so soon?" He answered, and Haruka's eye twitched at his egoistical claim.

"As if. Elm called, so haul your butt to the Pokemon Center as soon as you get done with the freaky heiroglyphic guy." Haruka informed, looking back at Feuille and Sakura and deciding she ought to help them. She walked over and lifted the old man's feet up so they could carry him faster.

"Alright, I plan to. He's already done scanning Effie, and he's upgrading our Pokedex right now." Tsukasa replied.

"Ahh, okay, see you later then." Haruka moved her finger to the 'end' button, and started walking forward.

"Later."

It was a ten minute walk to Violet, and it took a bit longer than usual due to Feuille, Sakura, and Haruka carrying the old man. They got some weird looks, but as they staggered over to the Pokemon Center some people came over to help carry him. Much to Haruka's relief. And her hand's relief.

Haruka, flanked by her Pokemon, walked into the Pokemon Center holding her hand. A few people backed away, thinking her pose was a bit dangerous. Elm's lab assistant quickly walked over towards her, and glanced at her injured hand.

"What happened? Did you hit a Rhyhorn?" He asked, chuckling.

"Nah. But I think it needs to get checked out." The assistant nodded, and waved over Nurse Joy.

"We need to get her hand examined." He explained to the pink-haired nurse, who nodded and called over a few Chansey who ushered Haruka to an examining room.

Tsukasa walked in as Nurse Joy was telling Haruka that her hand had been fractured, but as long as she didn't over-exert it the fracture would heal up. Tsukasa felt a bit guilty for egging Haruka on, since otherwise she wouldn't of tried to hit him. Though it was her fault, too. Nurse Joy fixed a gloves over Haruka's hand, and said that it would keep her from moving her hand too much before moving on to a Trainer who ran in with a half-dead Rattata.

"Well, thankfully it's not gonna hinder me too much." Haruka said as she walked over to Tsukasa. "Sakura and the others went to the room. Let's go talk to Elm's assistant."

"Aww, is that all I am to you Haruka-chan? Only Elm's assistant?" Haruka and Tsukasa turned around to see the Scientist faking tears and sweatdropped. "I...I thought we had something, Haruka-chan!"

"Umm...Sorry?" She tried, laughing nervously. "It's not like you have a nametag on, anyways."

"Very true, Haruka-chan. Now, shall we get on to business?" Elm's assistant asked, before taking a pack off his back and rummaging through it. "Ahh...! Here they are!"

Tsukasa and Haruka blinked as the assistant pulled out the egg that they had delivered to Elm and an odd gold and silver Pokeball. "These two things came straight from Elm! The Pokeball goes to Tsukasa-kun, and it's official name is the GS Ball!" Tsukasa took the Pokeball, no, GS Ball, and stared at it. "And the egg goes to Haruka-chan." The Scientist handed her the egg and zipped up his backpack. "I'm going to assume that Elm left the explaining to me?" The duo nodded.

"Typical Elm." He muttered, before straightening up. "In any case! You two are suppose to deliver the GS Ball for more examination to Azalea Town, specifically to a Pokeball specialist named Kurt! He is well known in that town, so if you ask any person they should be able to tell you where he lives." Tsukasa nodded, and put the GS Ball in a pocket along the carrying strap. "The egg, Haruka-chan, is to a present from Gary Oak to you." Haruka blinked, surprised.

"Whaaat? We only met once, and that was for like an hour. And we delivered this egg to Elm himself." Haruka protested, scowling at the assistant.

"Ahh. Well, that was the story I was suppose to tell you anyways." The assistant explained calmly while Haruka face-palmed. "The actual reason is the Gary doesn't remember what exactly is in the egg anymore, and wants someone to hatch it and give the Pokemon inside a good home. And you know how Elm's lab is..." Haruka shivered involuntarily, and nodded. "But Elm does request that you call him as soon as the egg hatches."

"Alright, should we call him once we deliver the GS Ball to Kurt too?" Tsukasa asked, shoving his hands inside his pockets.

"Yes, please do. And now that my work here is done, I'm heading back to New Bark Town. You two head up on to bed, seeing as you have a long journey tomorrow." Haruka and Tsukasa sweatdropped. What an odd man...The Scientist took a step towards Tsukasa and lowered his head so he could meet him at eye level. "And you, Tsukasa-kun..." Tsukasa paled, wondering what he was going to say. He seemed so ominous right now. "Take good care of Haruka-chan, or I'll kill you!" He finished cheerfully, giving a peace sign and then walking outside.

"What...the...hell..." Tsukasa muttered, a slightly freaked out look on his face.

"Well that was an awkward experience." Haruka noted, before walking towards the PokeCenter's boarding rooms. "C'mon, Eggy, we're gonna have a fun time together!" Tsukasa sweatdropped, but followed her. _What an idiot..._

When the two got to the room, Tsukasa released all his Pokemon out of their Pokeballs and started preparing for bed. Sakura immedietly claimed Tsukasa's pillow the second he walked into the room, and Haruka laughed as Venin refused to get off Byrn's head. Slate and Blinde returned to a previous conversation while Kouda and Effie started a new one. Raft seemed to actually be enjoying the fact that he was talking to Jet, and Feuille stared as Haruka set the egg on the bedside table. Haruka ruffled through the bag, pulling out a Pokeball, and 'captured' the egg to keep it from breaking. One by one the Pokemon settled down and went to sleep. Once everyone was asleep, Feuille got up on Haruka's bed and snuggled up to her Trainer's side as Byrn slept on her stomach.

It was peaceful, Feuille decided, and she hoped that every day ended like this. While today was odd, it was really fun. It would take some time to get use to battling, but it would be worth it...

_Feuille is a lot less nervous about what she's signed up for now, which is great. xD A bit of fluff, too. I need to work on getting more description and more interactions between the Pokemon, though. Must improve! :D_


	25. Battle Liz! Sawz the Ekans!

_**Johto**_

_Hey all! Only a few more weeks until fall break, and I'm already looking forward to it. School is such a drag...Anyways~ in the chapter after this we officially introduce __**Yochi**__. What does this mean for you, readers? Well, aside from their being new Pokemon and another personality to adapt to I can finally start writing out Yochi's personality. Yochi was going to be a huge breakthrough as she'd be the third main Trainer for the series, as well as a major antagonist. I was always looking forward to write her personality and have it be official on what her personality was instead of just a figure in my head. Plus the 'bad guy' is helping the 'good guy' and setting up for later chapters. So epic. :D In any case, let us start the next new chapter..!_

**Haruka Leaf's Pokemon:** Byrn (Cyndaquil), Feuille (Chikorita), Raft (Totodile), Venin (Zubat), Slate (Gastly), and Eggy (the Egg). It should be noted that Trainers are now abled to carry around as many eggs as they want to hatch them and to encourage the population growth of Pokemon. This is espically important for **endangered** Pokemon, such as Dratini, Charmander, Venusaur, ect.

**Tsukasa Kurogane's Pokemon:** Jet (Totodile), Kouda (Spinarak), Blinde (Gastly), Sakura (Bellsprout), and Effie (Unown,type A).

**Chapter 24:** Fight Liz! Swaz the Ekans!

The two Trainers and their Pokemon, now fully rested and having eaten breakfast, set off for Route 32. Tsukasa currently had his nose buried in a Town Map that he bought from the PokeMart. The Pokemon decided they prefered being in the Pokemon Chateau instead of walking, so most of them were inside their Pokeballs. Exceptions to this rule were Kouda, who wanted to see what was outside his home in Route 29, Sakura who refused to be in a Pokeball, and Byrn because he wouldn't have to walk due to the fact that he knew Haruka would carry him. They had just started into the Route when they saw a berry tree with Pecha Berries hanging off it, and they picked a few incase they ran into any Poison-type Pokemon.

Not soon after they had started walking again, a chubby man in about his fifties walked up to the two, shoved some odd seed-like thing into their hands and called it a "Miracle Seed".

"That will boost up your Pokemon's Grass-type moves. Use it on a good one." He muttered hurriedly, before walking off swiftly. Haruka and Tsukasa shared a confused glance, before walking onwards. Eventually the ridge of the rocks that seperated Route 32 from the ruins shrunk away, and Haruka and Tsukasa were able to see the long stretch of walking the had until they got to the far off dot that was enterance to Union Cave.

"Geez...We have a long way to go..." Tsukasa murmured, staring at the scenery that had been worn down by the many Trainers before them. There was a long stretch of land, fenced in by a forest of tall oaks on the western side, and the Route 32 River on the eastern side where there was a path of rafts going down for the Fishermen and Trainers looking for easy beginner Water-type Pokemon to catch. Come to think of it, they couldn't even see where the raft ended...

"Seriously...But at least we have the whole day to get past this and get through to Azalea Town." Haruka reminded him. "You think we should catch some Water-type Pokemon?"

Tsukasa shook his head. "Nah. We already have Jet and Raft, and they'll be really powerful. Plus there isn't any Gym where we'd have a definate advantage with them in this region."

"Alrighty, the grassy path it is!" Haruka gleefully cheered, pumping one fist into the air as the other held onto Byrn. "Maybe we can catch some more kick ass Pokemon here, too!" She squealed, walking down the dirt-and-grass path. Tsukasa chuckled and followed her.

"Yeah, like you need any more Pokemon. Besides, you already have five. One more and they're in the Chateau until you visit the PC." Tsukasa reminded her, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Yes, Sakura-hime refuses you to blatantly remove so many Pokemon from their homes! Not every Pokemon enjoys having their territory stolen while they are away to entertain _Humans_." Sakura stated, angrily crossing her vines.

"True, but...Don't they enjoy getting stronger so they can obtain better territories?" Haruka asked, looking confused but interested on what the Bellsprout was spouting.

"Not all Pokemon! Sakura-hime does not want to evolve into an ugly Victreebel! Sakura-hime will tolerate a Weepinbell, but not a hideous Victreebel! Seeing the world and becoming stronger are two totally different things, you silly Human." Sakura huffed, glaring at Haruka's head. Haruka sweatdropped.

"I know that...But Pokemon training was originally to help assist Pokemon and Human understanding of Pokemon. And --" Haruka didn't finish her sentence, because Tsukasa ran over and shoved her. She fell over and landed on the ground, glaring up at Tsukasa. "Hey, why'd you do that?!"

"Shut up." He muttered, pulling out a Pokeball and staring at the ground. Haruka's eyes trailed over to where he was looking and saw an Ekans coiled up and rattling its tail angrily. Haruka, having been paying so much attention to Sakura, would have stepped on the snake. She hadn't even heard its tail rattling until just now...

Tsukasa sent out Effie, and she made happy "briii, briii" noises before turning her attention to the Ekans. "Effie, use Hidden Power." Tsukasa murmured, and Effie nodded before charging the energy attack that shot towards the Ekans a second later. The Ekans flew back a few feet, before quickly slithering towards the floating Unown and unleashing a fierce Bite onto Effie. Effie cried out, before trying to squirm away and kicked the snake in its underbelly. The Ekans flinched, and she used the spare time to unleash another Hidden Power that forced the Ekans to release her. Effie charged another Hidden Power as fast as she could, and it smashed into the Ekans. The Ekans, having been hit with three normal-dosage attacks in such a short period, was getting tired. And fast.

Ekans knew that if it didn't act fast, it was going to be wiped out and left out on the road to be food for some Fearow or Pidgeotto. It launched itself at the Unown, fangs gleaming, and bit Effie. Effie cried out once more, and starter struggling once more in fear. When she saw the purple Acid leaking into her wound the pain was magnified by at least five times. _It hurts...It hurts...Why does it hurt so bad...? Am I..._ The next thing she knew, she was sucked into the Pokeball. The Ekans had a triumphant smirk on its mouth, before being sucked into a Pokeball itself.

"Shit..." Tsukasa muttered. "Effie really took a beating...And I think she got poisoned, too." Haruka's eyes widened, and she carefully got off the ground. She had been so shocked, so mesmerized by the battle that she hadn't moved. And...She was grateful. _That could've been me that had gotten poisoned...And Humans aren't as easy as Pokemon to cure...I could've just died right there..._

"Le-let's hurry to the Pokemon Center, then. If we run, we can make it there quicker." Haruka said quietly, and Tsukasa nodded. Sakura, noticing the difference in the mood, allowed herself to be captured if she was allowed to stay on Tsukasa's pillow that night. The other two went without hesitation. The two Trainers started to run down the Route, trying to get there as quickly as possible. _I owe Tsukasa. I owe him my life._

After jogging for twenty straight minutes, they weren't at the Pokemon Center and Tsukasa was getting more nervous by the second while Haruka was glad that she had gotten into track when she was younger. They kept on jogging, but they were halted by a girl with a goofy green helmet on her head.

"Hey, y'all! How 'bout we is gonna have ourselves a Pokemon battle?" She greeted cheerfully. Haruka nodded in greeting, while Tsukasa just kept on running.

"Sorry, we'll come back later!" Haruka yelled back, and looked back to see the girl frown.

"If you be running from a challenge, you is disqualified as a Trainer!" The two Trainers halted in their steps. _Shit shit shit shit..._Haruka thought, turning around fully to glare at the offending Trainer.

"We have a Pokemon in a deadly status, and you dare to say that?!" Haruka screeched, and the girl stuck her hands on her hips defiantly.

"Of course, I be saying that. You think you be all high an' mighty 'cause of a wimp little Pokemon?" She sneered. "Liz Kynya DezYrae don't appreciate those who be cowardly enough to be runnin' from a challenge, anyways."

Haruka glared at the bratty blonde in her green helmet, before turning to Tsukasa. "Go on and get Effie to the Pokemon Center, I'll give the girl her beat down."

"Hah! As if a wuss like you could ever be taking down the Lizanator!" Liz snickered, pulling a Pokeball off her belt and tossing it into the air. A small pink thing with green weed-like appendaged sprouting from its head. Haruka looked back to see Tsukasa running towards the Pokemon Center for a brief second, before focusing on the girl in front of her. _This is how I repay you..._

"C'mon out, Byrn!" Haruka cried, and threw Byrn's Pokeball up into the air so it would release the fire mouse, thinking it would be the best choice since the Pokemon looked like a Grass-type. "We gotta kick this girl's butt so we can hurry up and see if Effie is okay, so do your best, okay?" Byrn nodded, and took an offensive position. "This is going to be a one on one battle, and I don't care if you want otherwise. You've caused enough of a setback." Haruka announced. The girl glared at the Fire-type Pokemon her opponent had sent against her.

"Fine. I'm just checking to see if this Pokemon is worth keeping, anyways." Haruka's eyes widened as she noticed for the first time that the Pokemon wasn't wearing a translator. _She's one of those types..._

"That'll make beating you even sweeter. Byrn, use Ember!"

"Use Synthesis!" Liz cried out as the flames stopped hitting the Grass-type. Haruka watched in annoyance as the wounds Byrn caused were erased almost completely. Byrn set off another fire, and the Pokemon healed it. This continued for a few minutes, until Byrn finally gave up and Tackled the Pokemon and didn't let the Grass-type have enoguh tiem to heal itself before he used Ember on it. It fainted, and Liz recalled the Pokemon. She glared at the Pokeball, and sneered, "useless Hippop!" and the Pokemon materalized in white light, announcing that it had been released.

The Hippop looked at its former Trainer in sadness before fleeing, and Haruka decided that it was time to move on. She picked up Byrn and started running, but Byrn couldn't get what just happened out of his head.

_Unepic battle is unepic. D: Really all I wanted to do in this chapter was give Tsukasa his Ekans and make fun of the ridiculous names that the people in my freshman Spanish class have. :x That, and make fun of the utter destruction of the English language that happens every day in school. seriously, take like three minutes each passing period to listen how people talk and you'll be offended. :x This chapter was depressing to write, mainly because I was listening to Aquarius by Within Temptation as I wrote it. So the battles were a lot more depressing to me._


	26. Yochi, the Ground Master!

_**Johto**_

_I apologize for the wait. Schoolwork and the Sims 2 tend to draw me away. In any case...! Let us get started on the long awaited chapter twenty-five!_

**Chapter 25:** Yochi, the Ground Master!

Haruka felt like she was the fastest Human on the world right now. She was running so fast that all the other Trainers were jumping out of the way when she ran by. Then again, she was kind of running towards them to see who would jump out of the way first. So far it had been all the Trainers.

The Pokemon Center was just a few hundred feet ahead, according to her PokeGear. There was a bend in the path, however, so she couldn't see the long-awaited savior to her legs. _Just a bit further, Haruka...Just a bit further...If you can't do this then you don't deserve to be a Trainer. Just a bit further, Haruka..._She repeated the mantra in her head, and she finally made it to the bend created by the large trees.

Motivated by her progress, she zoomed right on by the woman who had been waiting for her. Yochi put her palm on her forehead and exaspiratedly muttered, "geez, are you really in that much of a hurry?" before following.

Haruka's wild grin spread further over her face as she saw the beloved red and white building. She slowed her pace to a walk and pushed open the door, her heavy panting causing her to get a few looks. Tsukasa walked out of the infirmirary at that moment, and gave a nod in Haaruka's direcrion as greeting before flopping down in a chair next to the wall. Haruka flopped down in the chair next to him, and stretched her arms.

"Geez, remind me to never do that again!" Haruka exclaimed, still grinning wildly.

"I dunno, you look like you enjoyed it." Tsukasa replied, chuckling. "But yeah, no more mad dashes to the Pokemon Center. Gotta be stocked up on PokeMart stuff."

Haruka nodded, and Tsukasa watched in amusement as she slouched so far that she almost started to fall out of the chair. "Agreed! I swear I'd never would of made it if I hadn't been on the track team."

The door to the Pokemon Center opened with a jingle of bells, and an older girl holding a Skitty walked in. She looked like she was in her twenties and had short and wild black hair, with a long strand of bangs over one green eye that went down to her chin. She wore a long-sleeved white shirt that had mesh on the arms and baggy tan cargo pants, and had a light-looking backpack hanging off one shoulder. She looked around the Pokemon Center, before her gaze finally settled on Haruka and Tsukasa. They grinned nervously, or at least Haruka did. The girl flashed a small smile of her own before walking over and sitting next to Haruka.

"Umm...Hello?" Haruka tried, and the girl smiled wider.

"Hey. I was wondering if you'd like to battle when you're free."

"Umm..." Haruka glanced over at Tsukasa nervously. He got the message that she was conveying quite pathetically, and sighed.

"I'll battle you, miss...?" Tsukasa prompted.

"Yochi. Yochi Kimura. Oh, and that's Sivetian style, so my first name is Yochi." The woman, Yochi, introduced. "And you?"

"Tsukasa Kurogane."

"Haruka Leaf."

The Skitty squirmed in Yochi's arms and Yochi let go of the small pink kitten. It bounced over to the chair next to Yochi, stretched, and then curled up into a ball and went to sleep. "Aww, isn't that just adorable?" Yochi squealed. Tsukasa and Haruka sweatdropped.

"Umm...Yeah. We're just waiting on Effie to come back, so..." Haruka said, and Yochi nodded.

"Yeah, I saw Tsukasa-san bring in Effie-chan about thirty minutes ago so she should be coming out soon." Yochi replied, and pushed away a strand of hair that fell into her left eye.

Tsukasa nodded in agreement, asking "So how many Pokemon do you want to use?" Yochi pressed her forefinger to her face and looked up at the cieling in thought.

"Three should do, shouldn't it?" Tsukasa nodded, and they set about waiting for Effie to come out. Five minutes later, Nurse Joy came out with a very happy and healthy-looking Effie floating behind her.

"Alright, she's all healthy! Now be careful, will you?"

"Yes ma'am, thank you." Tsukasa said gratefully as he pulled Effie back into the Pokeball. He then pulled out his latest Pokeball, the one containing his Ekans. With a flash of red light, the Pokemon materialized and an unhappy-looking purple snake sat on the floor of the Pokemon Center. Tsukasa pulled out a translator and put it on the snake.

"What do you want, Human?" It hissed in an annoyed tone. Tsukasa blinked, wondering what to say.

"...Your name would be good, huh?" The Ekans made an odd noise, almost like it was chuckling.

"Very good, Human. My name is Swaz. Now if you'll put me back in my Pokeball, I can finish talking to that pretty Chikorita." Tsukasa sweadropped. This Pokemon was...odd. And was that Feuille he was talking about? Tsukasa decided he didn't really want to know, and returned the snake.

Tsukasa turned to Yochi, who was lounging in her chair, petting her Skitty. "Shall we go?" Yochi nodded, and put her Skitty in her Pokeball. The trio walked outside, inbetween the Pokemon Center and Union Cave. The spread out, with Haruka watching from the "sidelines" and Tsukasa and Yochi on opposite sides of the "field" that Byrn dug out.

"Let's do this." Tsukasa said, and Yochi nodded. They grabbed a Pokeball off their belts and threw it into the "arena". Tsukasa had sent out Sakura, while Yochi had sent out a Larvitar. Haruka pulled out her Pokedex, eager to see what it said about the small Pokemon.

"_Larvitar, the Rock Skin Pokemon. A Pokemon that eats soil. Once it has eaten a large mountain, it goes to sleep so it can grow._"

"Leon, use Bite!" Yochi cried, and Sakura smirked and sent her vines towards the Larvitar. They wrapped around Leon and started to squeeze. "Rock Slide!" Leon's eyes glowed white, and Haruka heard a rumbling from behind her. She turned her head around, and got up and ran as fast as she could towards the Pokemon Center so she wouldn't be crushed by the mass of rocks coming off the side of Union Cave. The rocks came down quickly, and Sakura had to release her hold on Leon to dodge. Leon simply jumped over the rocks, before his body flashed black for a second and he followed in Pursuit.

Sakura turned around and sent more vines towards Leon, this time being more whip-like. Leon jumped over the first two, and ducked over the third in his charge towards Sakura. He finally slammed into Sakura, who quickly retracted her vines and Wrapped them around Leon's torso. Leon was powerless to move as Sakura spat out Sleep Powder, effectively causing Leon to pass out. Yochi recalled Leon, and Sakura struck a pose and smirked.

"No one can defeat the almighty Sakura-hime!!" Sakura boasted, and Yochi grinned as she pulled out her second Pokeball.

"We'll see about that! Go, Pieter!" Aflash of red light, and a Geodude appeared and flexed his arms.

"Hey there, cute thing. Wanna party?" He asked, winking at Sakura.

"Ew! Nasty rock-creature wishes!" She refused, looking quite offended. He winked again, and Sakura fumed.

"_Geodude, the Rock Pokemon. At rest, it looks just like a rock. Carelessly stepping on it will make it swing its fists angrily."_

"Uncivilized _and_ ugly, who would have guessed?!" Sakura sneered, and Pieter chuckled before picking up one of the rocks that had fell during Leon's Rock Slide. He used Rock Throw and tossed it over towards Sakura, who barely managed to dodge the hurtling rock. Pieter kept throwing rocks at Sakura, whose endurance was quickly fading. Eventually, Tsukasa recalled her in fear of her being smooshed.

"C'mon out, Jet!" Jet did a little dance, and topped it off with twirling on his foot while sending a large Water Gun towards Pieter. Pieter didn't dodge, and he picked up a rock and threw it at the crocodile. Jet jumped out of the way to dodge, only to be hit with a Tackle when he landed on the ground. But Jet clamped onto Pieter, and used Bite on the Ground-type Pokemon's head. Pieter accidently looked in Jet's eyes, and was met with a Leer. Pieter froze, and Jet punched the Ground-type in the eye. Pieter howled in pain and shoved Jet off of him, who did a playful flip and shot Pieter with another Water Gun. Yochi recalled Pieter, and pulled out her last Pokeball.

"This is over yet, don't let it get to your head!" Yochi said, grinning. "C'mon out, Abrigail!" She tossed the Pokeball into the air, and a small Phanpy appeared.

"_Phanpy, the Long Nose Pokemon. It is strong despite its compact size. It can easily pick up and carry and adult Human on its back._"

"Rollout, now!" Yochi commanded, and the Phanpy rolled into a ball and Jet barely dodged the speeding elephant. "Again!" This time, Jet wasn't so lucky. He was knocked down into the ground as he was run over, and barely had enough time to get back up before he was knocked down again. When he was throw into the air a third time, Tsukasa recalled him. Tsukasa stared at his belt, wondering which Pokemon would be his final. _Blinde can't handle the sun, Swaz is busy flirting, Effie just got back from being poisoned, and Kouda...Kouda it is._

"Go, Kouda!" The spider appeared before the elephant, and sized it up before running towards the elephant, Poison Sting ready. Kouda latched onto the elephtant, and was able to hit her before she threw him off. Kouda landed on his back, and shot out String Shot towards Abrigail. It slowed her down, but it didn't help much when she started to use Rollout. Kouda barely dodged it, before latching onto her and using Constrict. Abrigail used Growl, before charging towards a rock. Kouda noticed what she was doing, and jumped off before she smashed into the rock. Abrigail shook off the damage, before lowering her head and speeding towards Kouda with Head Smash poised to strike. Kouda didn't react fast enough, and was thrown through the air due to the sheer force of the attack.

Tsukasa recalled Kouda, and Yochi recalled Abrigail. They walked over to one another and shook hands. "Good match, Tsukasa-san."

"You too. I bet Nurse Joy isn't going to be happy to see me again so soon, though." Tsukasa replied, grimacing. Yochi laughed, and put her hands in her pockets.

"You and the other Trainers I sent."

"You've been here a while, then?" Haruka asked, bounding over from her "safe spot", Pokedex in hand.

"Nah. About a day or two." Yochi replied, shaking her head. "Was gonna get some training for these guys and head on over to Azalea to check on Karin."

"Wait...Karin?" Haruka asked, and Yochi nodded in affirmative. "That's Azalea's Gym leader, though! You know her?"

Yochi laughed. "Obviously, or I wouldn't be going to go see her, huh?" Haruka blushed and stammered something, and Tsukasa rolled his eyes and pushed her towards the Pokemon Center.

"You have any set destination in mind?" Tsukasa asked, and Yochi shook her head.

"Nah. Just travelling for a while. Sometimes I need a bit of a break from the boring everyday life in Goldenrod."

"Ooo, you should join us then Yochi!" Haruka suggested, looking like she barely contained a squeal. Yochi laughed, and nodded.

"I think I will, you two seem like you'd be interesting to hang around." Yochi agreed, looking amused.

"Just don't get caught in Haruka's ball of stupidity." Tsukasa warned, smirking.

"Heyyy! I'm not stupid!" Haruka whined, crossing her arms.

"Now, now you two. No fighting or I'll make you fend for yourselves."

_-cue sunset even though it's only been half a day- Dun dun dun...! This was a fun chapter to write. xD I'm afraid to say that I'm going to have to stray from my outline, however, because it's just no logical that Byrn and Jet evolve in chapter 53. So keep a lookout for evolution. :D_


	27. Union Cave, the First Step!

_**Johto**_

_This chapter is more filler-esque than anything else so far, or at least it is in the outline..._

**Chapter 26:** Union Cave, the First Step!

It was mid-day, so the Trainers decided a lunch break would be an excellent idea before continuing their journey to Azalea. And so currently they were sitting at a table inside the Pokemon Center's café-section, waiting for their food to come. The Pokemon were already eating, since Pokemon meals were always delivered first.

Haruka and Tsukasa were surprised at Yochi's Pokemon, and not just because she had a Skitty. Aside from the Hoenn-native feline, she also had the Sinnoh-native Lucario and another Hoenn-native Pokemon, Lunatone. She obviously had a thing for Ground-type Pokemon, and the only Pokemon that the two had seen so far that strayed from that was Skitty and Lucario.

"I've never been to Goldenrod, what's it like?" Haruka asked, sipping on her soda.

"It's like most cities with lots of residents." Yochi replied, shrugging. She guaged by Haruka's flicker of annoyance that wasn't a suffiecent answer, and chuckled. "Lots of people, obviously, and there's the popular department store, the Clan Day-Care, the underground shopping tunnel, the radio station, and there was a popular bike store that went bankrupt. Probably because of the casino. Oh, and there are the trams to Kanto, too."

"Ooo, I wanna see the trams! I heard they can take you to Kanto and back in only an hour and a half!" Haruka recalled, looking impressed.

"It's true." Yochi confirmed, nodding. "They're really fast. I remember spending about three months in Kanto and coming back to Johto in less than an hour. Makes you feel like the world is really small."

"The Clan Day-Care was the first day-care center in the world, wasn't it?" Tsukasa asked as a Blissey sat down the food for the Trainers. Haruka looked hungrily at her bean and cheese nachos, and started eating as soon as the Blissey sat down the food. Yochi looked at Haruka, an amused look on her face, before turning back to Tsukasa.

"Not quite. The first one was actually in Kanto, but the Clan Day-Care was the first one to actually offer breeding." Yochi replied, sticking a fork into her meat sauce and penne pasta. "Mm, this is good. I wonder if the next Pokemon Center's is this good."

Tsukasa chuckled, eating his chili. "You obviously travel a lot. Is Johto your native country?"

Yochi shook her head. "Nah, I'm from Siveta. I technically live in Goldenrod now, since my house is there, but I don't really have a place I really call home since I'm always travelling."

"But don't you want a place to call home?" Haruka asked around a chip.

"Eh, I don't really feel like I need one. Plus I get bored in only one location." Yochi replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "What about you two, you both natives?"

"I am, I've always lived in Johto. My mum came from Almia, though." Haruka replied as she tore another chip out of the gooey mass of white cheddar.

"Been wondering how you got a Ranger jacket." Tsukasa admitted, nodding towards the jacket. "I'm pretty sure I'm Johto-native, but not one hundred percent sure."

"Ahh, your parents not tell you?"

"I was living in an orphanage until now, so not really." Tsukasa replied, before he was jumped on by Jet.

"Tsutsu! Swaz is being mean, make him stop!" Jet cried, giving Tsukasa a puppy-dog look as he sat in Tsukasa's lap.

"...Tsutsu? What the hell?" Tsukasa asked, ignoring the puppy-dog look.

"Tsutsu is Tsutsu!" Jet replied, tearing his eyes from Tsukasa and staring at his chili. "Ooo, that stuff looks like crap!" Tsukasa sweatdropped, and looked very unsure of what to do then. Yochi's Skitty bound over the seat and plopped onto Yochi's lap.

"Pettt meee!" She encouraged happily, rolling over so Yochi could rub her belly. The Lucario, named Tarlach, slid into the booth chuckling.

"Yochi-sama, we should hurry on to Azalea town before Pieter needs healing again." Tarlach advised, looking over towards the Geodude who was still trying to lay the moves on the increasingly agitated Sakura. Unfortunately, it seemed he was too late as Sakura finally got fed up and slapped the flirtatious Ground-type numerous times with her Vine Whip.

"How dare you talk to Sakura-hime like that!! You should be embarassed to even _consider_ flirting with me, espically after the amazing Sakura-hime told you not to!" She screeched as she slapped Pieter silly. Blinde sighed and sweatdropped, while Slade started to chuckle simultaneously with Kouda. Abrigail and Leon winced, before trying to pull the homicidal Bellsprout away from Pieter. Try being the key word.

Tsukasa returned Sakura, while Yochi returned Pieter. "We probably should get going now." Yochi agreed, leaving the money for the food on the table. Haruka and Tsukasa nodded, and they returned the Pokemon who didn't want to walk. Haruka, remembering Feuille's last encounter with a cave, made sure she was safe in her Pokeball. In the end, only Byrn, Raft, Venin, Jet, Kouda, Yochi's Skitty, and Tarlach were left outside. Byrn and Skitty were carried by their Trainers, and Venin hitched a ride on Haruka's head like Kouda did with Tsukasa's.

The trio took the ten minute walk to the cave entrance, and Haruka and Tsukasa stared in wonder. The cave's mouth was much larger than the mouth of the cave on Route 31, but you could see that it was well-lit. "Onwards we go." Byrn said, noticing that if the two Trainers kept gaping they wouldn't get any further.

And so they entered the cave, eager to see what lay ahead in their journey.

_Filler chapter...Short filler-chapter...But it starts the next mini-arc, and we got more background on how the world is. They don't reach Azalea town for another couple chapters, mainly because I want to torture them. xD_


	28. Oh Shi!

_**Johto**_

_Do-do-do do-do-do do-do-do Pokemon Johto~ o3o_

**Chapter 27**: Oh Shi---!!

Union Cave was still damp and cold, even if it was well-lit. The walls were slimy, and Haruka refused to touch them and made Tsukasa and Yochi walk along the walls. Yochi estimated that it would take at least two hours to get out of the cave, and even longer on normal days. Tarlach walked at the front, making sure they didn't step in anything and warning them about holes and Pokemon. Skitty was curled up in Yochi's backpack, not wanting to be carried by Yochi and possibly get her coat slimy. Byrn was being held in Haruka's arms, as always, and Venin and Kouda were where they usually were.

The Trainers and their Pokemon were quiet, keeping their talking barely above whispers to avoid luring Trainers or Pokemon. Yochi had mentioned a problem with Sandshrew and Goldeen fueding around the area, and that both sides were liable to attack anything they could for food.

As the tunnel they had been walking through opened up to a more open area, the lights became sparse but still gave plenty of light to view the underground lake. In the distance, there was a Trainer battling another with a Fire-type. The group stopped to watch the battle from afar, not being able to see all of what was going on but still able to get the jist of it. The fire made a pretty reflection on the water, and with its assistance you could see Wooper, Magikarp, Goldeen, and even the ocassional Quagsire and Seaking underneath the surface.

_I wonder what it would be like to snorkel in there..._ Haruka thought, slightly remembering tales of her mother's Ranger days. _I bet it would be pretty...There needs to be a snorkel group opened here._

The battle ended, and the Trainers on both sides moved on. Haruka enjoyed walking near the water, enjoying the beauty of it. Byrn squirmed in her arms, but Haruka didn't notice. They came to the end of the lake, and walked around the curve onto the other side of the lake. Yochi prefered to be near the wall, which was considerably less slimey than the tunnel before. Kouda stared out at the lake with as much wonder and amazement as Haruka, while Venin finally got off Haruka's head and was zooming around eagerly. Venin seemed to be very happy exploring the cavern, or at least the area they were in currently. He found some Zubat and was socializing with them, and seemed to be compairing the two areas with each other.

Tsukasa was keeping his look out for Pokemon. Despite the fact that he already had six Pokemon, he was hoping that he could get even more Pokemon for his arsenal. So when he saw the Onix slithering along the side of the road, he sent out Jet immediately.

Jet looked around, grinning toothily. "Hey, boss! Whatcha want me to do?" Haruka and Yochi stopped, Haruka looking confused and Yochi looking a bit impatient yet interested. They'd already lost good time watching that battle.

"Use your Water Gun on that Onix over there, Jet." Tsukasa ordered, pointing at the Onix. Jet nodded and grinned even wider, before charging towards the Onix and blasting numerous jets of water at the Ground-type. The Onix flinched as it was hit with the frigid water, and looked to see that the small crocodile was the one firing said water.

The Onix waved its tail menacingly, before swinging it at the small crocodile. Jet jumped over it, grimacing as the tail crushed a nearby pile of boulders. _That wouldn't of been fun to get hit by, yowch!_ Jet thought as he continued his charge towards the rock-snake.

Haruka, in the meantime, had pulled out her Pokedex and was using it to scan the Onix. "_Onix, the Rock-Snake Pokemon_. _When it travels underground, it causes rumbling and tremors. It can move at 50mph._" Haruka stared in amazement at the Onix, while Yochi grinned. _Ground-types are so amazing!_

The Onix winced as Jet used Water Gun on it, and tried to move away from the powerful blast. Just as the water had stopped, however, the Onix was faced with a new problem. Namely, the Totodile that was attached it its horn with his teeth. The horn wasn't protected with as much rock as the rest of its body, and was considerably more sensitive because of it. Onix couldn't get the Tototdile off without hurting itself, either.

Jet had latched onto the horn as soon as he was close enough to, and really didn't want to let go. The only method of attacking were his claws, and those weren't very effective. It was either that or possibly get crushed by the four-hundred and sixty pound snake. With that logic in mind, Totodile began to Scratch the Onix. Onix used Screech in its surprise, and started swinging its head around, trying to fling the Totodile off. Jet was getting very dizzy very fast, and he eventually lost his hold on the Onix's horn and was flung into the lake.

The Onix took on a defensive pose before using Harden. Totodile swam to the surface and burst out of the water, firing Water Gun at the rock-snake. The Onix winced, before Tackling straight towards the Totodile. However...It didn't see the red and white orb flying towards it. It was sucked into the Pokeball, vanishing into red data. Jet hopped over to Tsukasa while the Pokeball landed and started jiggling. As the 'ping' signified the Onix was caught, Tsukasa ran to grab it. Just as he reached it, it vanished into thin air and Tsukasa was left staring at the empty spot.

"Ooo, gratz on your sixth Pokemon Tsukasa-san." Yochi said, crossing her arms and smirking. "You can pick him up when we reach Azalea, if you want to trade in one of your Pokemon." She explained, before walking down the path to the cave. Haruka grabbed Tsukasa's arm and dragged him along, as the followed Yochi.

"C'mon!! I wanna reach Azalea soon!" Haruka squealed, grinning enthusiastically as she dragged Tsukasa through the cave while holding Byrn. Haruka turned her head towards Tsukasa, and Yochi stopped to look back at the two with amusement. Byrn was the only one who saw what was coming.

"Haruka..." Byrn said, trying to get her attention.

"C'mon...!"

"Haruka."

"Let's go...!"

"Haruka!" Third try is the charm, and she turned to Byrn just as she tripped over the rock, and flew over the small fence. Screaming, Haruka found herself falling into yet another hole. Tsukasa tried to not get dragged down with her, just barely holding onto the edge of the hole as Haruka dangled below him. Haruka looked down fearfully, seeing the drop down, and clenched onto Byrn tighter. Yochi, surprised, ran over to the hole and flung her hand down to Tsukasa's arm.

Only to be met with air, as he lost his grip and fell. Tarlach jumped down into the hole the second Yochi missed, as the later swore and sat down on the edge of the hole before vaulting herself off.

Down below, Haruka moaned and tried to push herself up, only to realize that her fractured hand was now searing in pain as it had hit the ground roughly. Byrn had rolled over a few feet away as her hand had let go, and seemed to be out. Tsukasa had barely avoided landing on her other arm, falling into a nearby pool that he had just surfaced from and was gasping for air. Tarlach had landed on a nearby rock, before his eyes widened and he quickly jumped off as the rock started growling. Yochi landed next to where Tarlach now was in a crouching position, before noting the Graveller.

"Shit. You've got really bad luck, eh Haruka?"

_Sorry for the late update. Johto is going to be postponed over Thanksgiving break due to the mass amounts of homework I have. Just thought I'd warn you. _


	29. The Geodude Pit

_**Johto**_

_This is rather weird, using Microsoft Word to write. Normally I use Wordpad. :x Haha, apparently Wordpad isn't a word._

**Chapter 28:** The Geodude Pit

"Jet, use Water Gun!" Tsukasa ordered as he picked up his bag, and put it over his shoulder. Haruka got up hurriedly, and grabbed the Pokeball on her belt and recalled Byrn as the strong blast of water hit the Graveller. Tarlach rushed toward the Graveller, his palms glowing with Aura. His fist slammed into the Graveller, who had been busy trying to flee from the Water Gun. The Graveller hit the rocky ground of the cave, and slowly got up, letting out a rocky growl that bounced around the cavern.

The rumbling of the cavern caused Yochi to look around nervously, before yelling out "we have to run! It's calling its friends!" Haruka glanced at Yochi fearfully, and sent out Feuille. While she knew Feuille would be terrified, she didn't know if Raft would actually listen to her. Feuille appeared next to a boulder, and scanned the cavern before visibly paling.

"Wh-where are w-we, Haruka?" She squeaked in terror, backing up to Haruka's leg.

"Union Cave. We fell into some sort of pit, and that Graveller is calling its friends!" Haruka explained, pointing toward the still rumbling Graveller.

"Tarlach, use Iron Claw!" Yochi cried out as a Geodude came out of nowhere and started hurtling towards Tsukasa. Tarlach nodded dutifully and rushed over the rocky terrain, sending a flying Iron Claw into the Geodude. It slammed into a wall, and rested there for a few moments before getting up and glaring angrily at Tarlach. Tarlach's fists began to glow, and he sped towards the Geodude.

"Water Gun!!" Tsukasa shouted, and Jet blasted the Graveller into a wall.

"Feuille, Razor Leaf!" Haruka ordered, pointing at the Graveller. Feuille quivered slightly, before stepping up and sending razor-sharp leaves hurtling towards the Graveller. It cried out in pain as the leaves scratched its rocky hide deeply, and Haruka only had a moment to grin triumphantly before it started to unleash Magnitude.

Feuille squealed as the ground started to moved and rocks started to fall from the cavern's roof, while Yochi dodged the falling rocks with practiced ease. "Tarlach, Iron Claw! Skitts, come on out!" Skitty jumped out of Yochi's backpack, slipping under rocks with feline grace. She slammed her tail into a rock and sent it flying into the Geodude. Another Geodude climbed out of a hole, and picked up a large rock and throw it towards Yochi.

Yochi spotted the Geodude in time for her to command Skitty to use Assist, and she ran towards the Geodude with her tail glowing with Aura Palm. She slammed it into the Geodude, and Yochi barely dodged the hurtling rock. She hissed in pain as it flew past her arm, and tore a hole in her sleeve.

"Assist again!" She hissed out, clutching her arm. Tsukasa looked over worriedly, before noticing the Golem that was behind her.

"Yochi! Watch out!" Yochi turned around, and her eyes widened as she was easily picked up by the Golem and held over its head. She shrieked as she was flung towards a pile of rough-edged rocks, and Tarlach turned away from his opponent and swiftly caught her before she met her painful fall.

Yochi looked up to see Tarlach staring down at her worriedly, before giggling and giving him a peck on the cheek. "My hero." She praised, and Tarlach blushed slightly as he put her down. Skitty, who had just finished Iron Clawing the Geodude rushed over to Tarlach and nuzzled him happily.

"Great job, Tartar!" She mewled, and Tarlach blushed more furiously.

"The Golem…Shall I take care of it?" Tarlach asked, still blushing deeply as he stared at the rock creature. Yochi nodded and pulled out a Pokeball.

"Aura Palm!" She commanded, and Tarlach nodded before rushing towards the Golem, palms glowing. Skitty bounded over to assist Feuille with her Geodude, and barely avoided a rock thrown by a new Graveller. Haruka grimaced, not liking these odds one bit. Sure, Feuille was a Grass-type, but she had her limits. Plus she was weakened by lack of sunlight and she was scared shitless.

"Go Raft! Water Gun that Graveller!"

"What? You want me to fight for you? Feh." Raft asked, looking annoyed. Yet Raft bolted out towards the Graveller anyways, and jumped up over the Graveller and shot down the Water Gun with ferocious intensity. The Graveller moaned as the high-pressure water slammed into it, and Raft landed on the ground a few feet in front of it, still spraying water. Graveller charged, despite the water pressure, and slammed into Raft.

Raft flew back, and flipped back onto his feet as he landed. Groaning, Raft shook his head and tried to orientate himself. The Graveller charged again, and Raft barely jumped out of the path of its Rollout. He inhaled as he landed on a boulder and slammed the blast of water into the Graveller.

Meanwhile, Tsukasa was dealing with his own Graveller and now two Geodudes. Jet was getting tired, and Sakura had just been sent out. Sakura was mauling the Geodudes with rough vines, and Jet was occupying the Graveller. Jet was using his superior speed to run around the Graveller and blasting water at it in random intervals. Sakura's Poison Powder had infected one of the Geodude and had wrapped her vines around it, picking it up and chucking it at the the other Geodude. Meanwhile, Jet slammed into the Graveller and it squished the two Geodude. Sakura unleashed a Sleep Powder, and the two Geodude passed out with the Graveller on top of them.

Tsukasa smirked triumphantly, feeling proud of his Pokemon. "Good job, you two!" He looked around the cavern and saw Haruka, Skitty, Raft, and Feuille taking care of their opponents and Yochi and Tarlach taking care of the Golem. Tsukasa pulled out a Pokeball. "You two take are to take a good rest." He ordered, returning them to the Pokeball world.

Tarlach landed on his feet, crossing his arms over his face and started charging his attack as the Golem charged. The Golem came within five feet, before it was blasted back with the energy from the Dark Pulse. Yochi took this as her opportunity to send the Pokeball in her hands flying towards the Golem, causing it to vanish into the Pokeball with a red glare. It bounced onto the ground and rocked back and forth a few times and a light 'ping' was heard, and Tarlach watched as it vanished into thin air. Tarlach heard footsteps and turned to see Tsukasa walking over with Kouda mystically still on his head.

"Nice attack. What's it called?" He asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Dark Pulse, Tsukasa-san." Tarlach replied, nodding in greeting and looking towards Skitty. "Should we help? They seem to have enough people but…" He watched at Raft blasted the Graveller while Feuille and Skitty slammed into Geodude repeatedly. Feuille would get on one side a ram by on one side and Skitty would get on the other side and slam into into the other one. The Geodude didn't have enough time to react, but the two Pokemon were getting scratched up by its rough hide. Suddenly, there was a flapping noise and Venin was latched onto the Graveller with his mouth. Venin held down the Graveller, and Raft launched off one last Water Gun before the firing one towards the Geodude to finish it off.

Haruka grinned and quickly returned Feuille, knowing that she'd feel much better in the artificial sunlight of the Pokeball than the cold darkness of the cave. Raft plopped down, groaning and panting from the battle. "Stupid Pokemon wouldn't just give up…"

"You people need to stop falling down holes, it makes it a pain to find you." Venin complained exasperatedly, flapping over to Haruka's head and landing on it. Haruka laughed in relief, returning Raft to his Pokeball and joining Tsukasa and Tarlach. Skitty bounded over, looking damaged but happy in her victory.

"That was fun! I want to team up with Feuille again!" She mewled, and Haruka and Yochi grinned.

"Heh, well, let's get out of here first." The group nodded in agreement, and they returned their tired Pokemon and began walking, with Tarlach as their guide.

_This chapter took soooo long to write. I'm utterly awful at fight scenes, and this was all that this chapter was. O-e_


	30. The Most Fail Chapter Ever

_**Johto**_

_Sorry for the delay, finals week and IAs cause mental implosion. Plus this is mainly filler, so...I wasn;t exactly excited to write it. D;_

**Chapter 29:** Quake and the Return of Hoppip

The cave was cold. Haruka couldn't wait to get out of it. It wasn't as wet as it had been up near the lake, but that didn't make it any less painful. _I think it actually makes it worse..._Haruka thought, shivering. _I hadn't noticed before...It was so much better up near the lake..._

"This way." Tarlach said, motioning towards a cramped pathway. While Haruka was thankful for his navigation skills, she couldn't help but wonder if he couldn't have found an easier route. This thought intensified as she found herself barely fitting through a few of the areas, forced to make contact with the freezing cold wall. Tsukasa followed not far behind, looking similarly disgruntled at this passage way. Behind him was Yochi, who held a passive expression on her face but her eyes glittered with enjoyment. Venin had decided to fly behind them in order to avoid being slammed into some rocks or something else.

After a ten minute walk through the passage way, and having to help each other through some of the narrower parts, they seemed to have returned to the normal level of the cave. They travelled easily through the wide passage-ways, until Haruka spotted a Sandshrew burrowing into the ground, looking for food.

"Ohmigod, it's so _cute_!!" She squealed, and Tsukasa winced next to her while Yochi laughed.

"I know, right? I'd add mine to my team, but my current team needs training." Yochi exclaimed, grinning with excitement. She looked like she was about to burst from sheer joy. I think she's been in the cave for too long...

"Just catch it already..." Tsukasa muttered, looking bored.

"Fine, Mr. Spoilsport!" Haruka said, sticking out her tounge before taking out a Pokeball at tossing it at the Sandshrew. The Sandshrew was engulfed in red light and sucked into the ball, before it fell onto the floor and started teetering back and forth.

Ten seconds went by, before there was a 'ping' and Haruka grinned madly and rushed over to her Pokeball. "I can't believe I caught it that easily!"

"Dumb luck, Haruka..."

"I can't believe I caught it!!"

"Can we go now?"

"I can't be--" **THWACK.**

"C'mon, I want to get out of here." Tsukasa ordered, dragging Haruka by her collar. "Preferably before Yochi starts to hump the walls."

"Hey, I would never do that!" Yochi protested, frowning slightly and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I beg to differ..." Tarlach muttered, and everyone turned to look at him. "What? Let us be going, I wish to have a hamburger." Everyone stared at the retreating Lucario's back, before they started to catch up to him.

As it turned out, they were extremely close to the exit, only a few turns away. The bright light shone through the darkness, and reflected off the travelers' faces which shone back just as brightly. Aside from Yochi. She was sulking in a corner, not wanting to leave her earthen paradise. Tarlach dragged her out anyways, and into the light of the sun.

"SUNLIGHT!! I thought I'd never see it again!" Haruka squealed happily, causing Tsukasa to sweatdrop.

"No you didn't, drama queen. Now let's go get some--" Tsukasa was cut short as he felt something land on his head. "What the...?"

"Tsukasa, why do you have a Hoppip on your head?" Yochi asked, finally over leaving Union Cave.

"I have no idea..." Tsukasa replied, while Haruka giggled at the site before realizing she'd seen the Hoppip before.

"Heyyy...Isn't that Liz's Hoppip?" She asked, tilting her head to the side and causing Venin to fall off.

"Wah!" Venin barely caught himself, before flapping up to the Hoppip. "You. Stalkerrr."

"Hop? Hop hop pip!! Hop hop hop hop hop!" The Hoppip exclaimed, looking angry.

"Sureee...That's what they ALL say." Venin was about to continue, but the Hoppip jumped onto him and sent him crashing into the ground.

"Ipp!"

Haruka pulled out Venin's Pokeball and returned him, while Tsukasa...

Cut. Cut cut cut. This is the most fail scenario ever. I know I wrote the outline two years ago, but come _on_! Uhg...In short, Hoppip gets an angsty story about being abandoned in the wild as a child and always being released due to not knowing any good attacks. Tsukasa sends out Sawz to battle Hoppip, and easily captures her for some reason. Happily ever after. That bores me, so Imma skip it and you hopefully have less of a want to shoot youself in the head from all the cheesiness.

_And since that was all I had this chapter...I'll start working on writing the next chapter which, thankfully, starts the Kurt vs Bad Guys in Slowpoke Well battles. In any case, you see why I did __**not**__ want to write this fail chapter, and I apologize for my formerly-a-freshman sense of cheesiness._


	31. Something Feels Wrong

_**Johto**_

_After the epic failure of last chapter, it's time to move on to the start of some more plot! :D Sorry for the dely as well, my internet decided to crash. I hope the added character scenes are enoguh. :x Trying to add more emotion and stuff, not just an over-view of what happened. I have a lot of stuff to get better at, and that's the main one. :o_

* * *

**Chapter 30:** Something Feels Wrong...

The were at the PokeCenter, relaxing after their tiring journy into the caves and making sure they were all patched up. Yochi had gone out to Ilex Forest to test out her new Golem and left her other Pokemon at the Pokemon Center for some rest and relaxation. Tarlach was happy munching on his bacon cheeseburger, Pieter was flirting with Sakura (much to her dismay), Leon was chatting with Venin and Kouda as they ate, and Abrigail and Skitty were giggling about something or rather...

Haruka and Tsukasa had decided to stay behind and enjoy the few hours of relaxation before they left to battle the Gym Leader. Sawz had taken to relentlessly flirting with Feuille, who was actually _flirting back_. Effie had joined Blinde and Slate in their conversations, and she seemed very nervous and shy, and kept warily glancing over towards Sawz. Blinde and Slate had noticed this, and were trying to get her to feel better about her team mate.

"B-but he made m-me feel un-unpleasant!" Effie stammered, her single eye glancing down the the floor of the Pokemon Center.

"He was a wild Pokemon, like you were. He probably attacked out of fear. I know I would've. Not many Pokemon enjoy being defeated by Trainers." Blinde said simply, a bored expression on her face.

"Y-yes but..."

"You're going to have to learn to work together with him, y'know." Slate said suddenly, as he peered over at Sawz. He had been quiet for most of the conversation.

"I suppose..." She murmured, before being slammed into by Raft. Raft had been attempting to get an apple from the bowl on the counter, but was blasted away by a Squirtle's Water Gun. Raft glared over at the Squirtle, before realizing he had knocked someone over. He looked behind him and saw Effie squirming, and as he got up he held out his paw to help her up.

"Sorry 'bout that. Some jackass decided it would be cute to blast me while I was getting some food." Raft apologized, glaring over towards to Squirtle who was grinning cockily.

"Uhm...It's okay..." Effie replied, peering over at the turtle. "He should be punished...Shouldn't he?"

"Damn straight!" Raft agreed, picking up a book off the sidetable next to him as he grinned maliciously. "Take this, shell-breath!" Raft taunted, before lobbing the book into the air. The book bonked the turtle in the head, and the Squirtle clutched the sporty new red spot as he seethed at the crocodile.

"Soffio will make you pay for this, you pathetic excuse for a water-type!" He growled, before running out of the Pokemon Center.

"Psh. What a pitiful Pokemon." Raft muttered, before turning towards Effie. "So you don't like Sawz much?" Effie sweatdropped, wondering why they were back on this topic again.

"H-he scares me...But I can try to get over it." Effie answered, and Raft stared at her for a second before crossing his forepaws and nodding appreciatively.

"Good. That's what I like to hear." Raft said, grinning. "You probably will have to do a few battles with me, so it's good to know I won't have someone holding me back." He complimented, causing Effie to sputter something as Raft walked over to rejoin Jet, his apple forgotten.

Jet had been talking to Quake, the Sandshrew that Haruka had captured. Apparently he was a very friendly Pokemon, and quite cheerful. Raft could hear him laughing brightly from across the Pokemon Center.

"Yo. What are we doing next?" Raft asked, plopping down next to the two.

"I think there's a Gym here, meaning we'll be on our way to our next badge!" Jet exclaimed excitedly, causing Raft to smirk.

"Ah, Gyms. Didn't Venin and Byrn fight in the last one?" Raft asked, and Jet nodded excitedly.

"Yeah! I'm not sure what the lineup for this Gym will be, though. It's suppose to be Bug-type, so I'm really interested to see what Tsukasa will do for this one." Jet rambled, causing both Quake and Raft to chuckle.

"I've never been to a Gym battle before, but they sound interesting. Do you know the leaders for this region?" Quake asked, looking interested with the concept.

"Yeah, I only know the ones from Hoenn. Care to fill us in?" Raft, despite not really enjoying the fact that he was a Trainer's Pokemon, still wanted to know more about the going-ons of the world.

"Yeah. First there's Ariana, who is the former Gym leader's cousin before he moved to Hoenn. Karin is Azalea's Gym leader, but I'm not sure if she'll be staying much longer. I heard Elm saying she had some personal issues to work out and was frequently taking time off from the Gym. Not sure who would replace her, though." Jet took a few moments to recall other Gym leaders that Elm had spoken about. "If I remember right, the old Gym leader Whitney left last year after her Clefable had died. Ahh, she was Goldenrod's Gym leader. I think her daughter runs the Gym now. Ecruteak's Gym leader is still Morty, but I heard they remodeled the Gym so he wouldn't fall as much."

Suddenly Raft remembered something. "Wait a sec, wasn't Morty the friend of that old Legend Hunter?" Jet nodded in confirmation. "How is he still a legal Gym operator?"

"None of his children are old enough to operate the Gym, and they don't want to reformat the Dance Hall into a Gym." Jet replied, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Ahh. What else? There are still eight Gyms, right?"

"Right, so after this one our Trainers will have to go through six more Gyms in this region. After Ecruteak I think you go to Olivine City and battle Violet. Then you would catch a ferry to that island and battle Norris."

"How long will it take to get to Olivine?" Raft asked, remembering his orb. _I need to get to the Whirl Islands as fast as possible..._

"Hmm, by the way we're travelling and guessing Goldenrod's attractions...About a month, maybe three weeks or so. Two weeks would be pushing it." Jet answered, and Raft nodded in understanding. He crossed his arms and scowled at nothing in particular. _Great. This mission will take longer than anticipated. I hope we finish up in time._

"By the way, why are you so interested in Olivine City?" Quake asked, and Jet looked at him oddly.

"Isn't it obvious he wants to know the time it would take to finish all of the Gyms?" Jet asked, and Quake shook his head.

"No, Raft seems preoccupied with something else." Quake stated, wondering why Raft looked so annoyed and worried.

"Eh. I have a mission that I was suppose to be doing before I got captured. It would be nice if I could complete it soon." Raft muttered, before standing up. "I'm going to go find someone. I heard they were in this town."

"Alright, be careful." Jet replied awkwardly, feeling left out and not able to understand all that was going on. Raft nodded as he walked out of the automated doors, and Quake tilted his head to the side curiously. _I wonder...Is he like me? If he is, he got the short end of the stick..._

Skitty jumped onto the seat next to Tarlach and stretched out. "Hey Tarlach, when do you think we'll run into the others?"

"Probably soon. Soffio's Squirtle was in here earlier, they might be working on the well." Tarlach replied, eating another burger. This one had chili and bacon, and it was unfortunately the last of Tarlach's burgers.

"Ah, that one? I don't like him much, he's always a brat when I see him." Skitty said, sighing. "I wonder when Yochi will be back, I hope it's soon. I want to get to doing something."

"We will probably be leaving tomorrow or the day after. Tsukasa-san and Haruka-san wish to take part in battling the Gym leader, which might take a while." Tarlach informed inbetween bites of his burger. Mm...heavenly...

"Alright. I want to get back to Goldenrod and see if Duister can make me some more Pokeblocks..." Skitty muttered, before curling into a ball and trying to get some sleep. Tarlach chuckled, before finishing his burger.

"Yochi-sama needs to come back soon. I shall go look for her, I guess." He muttered, heading out of the Pokemon Center and towards Ilex forest. As Tarlach exitted the Pokemon Center, Tsukasa and Haruka entered having freshly restocked their supplies at the PokeMart.

"Hey, Haruka. Gym or that Pokeball expert?" Tsukasa asked, hands in his pockets as they walked over to the table where Yochi's Skitty was sleeping.

"Hmm...Gym, and then the Pokeball expert? Ah, and I should get my hand checked before we leave..." Haruka muttered, sitting down and rubbing the padding around her hand. Tsukasa sat down across from her, setting his bag in between him and the pink kitten snoozing on the other side of the booth.

"Right. This Gym is Bug-type, right?" Tsukasa asked, and Haruka nodded. "Hmm. Are any of my Pokemon actually super-effective against Bug-types?"

"Hmm...I think Effie _could_ be, but...Psychic-types are weak against Bug-types. So I really don't think you have any..." Haruka pursed her lips, wondering how exactly Tsukasa would win this one. "Well, despite the lack of type advantage, you should be able form _some_ type of strategy!"

Tsukasa snorted, but he smirked nonetheless. "Of course I can. This just makes things a bit more difficult. I need to get a Fire-type here soon."

"I'd love to use Byrn for this battle, but he battled in the first Gym and I'd like to see how Quake and Raft would do." Haruka said, opening her can of lemonade. "I guess we'll see how this all plays out. Byrn would _definately_ kick some ass. And Venin could do some nice damage, too."

"But Venin battled that Trainer in the last Gym, didn't he?" Tsukasa reminded, looking around the Pokemon Center. All of their Pokemon were socializing with the others, and some were definately looking like they would be friends. "I'm a bit worried about Sawz and Effie. She seemed utterly terrified of him earlier."

"Yeah...But Slate and Blinde were talking to her earlier about it, weren't they?" Tsukasa nodded, chuckling as he spotted Sawz and Feuille.

"Those two are getting along surprisingly well. Too bad Pieter can't say the same with Sakura." Tsukasa said, smirking. While Sakura seemed to be tolerating the Ground-type for the moment, before they had left to visit the PokeMart Sakura was threatening to use her Vine Whip against the poor Pokemon. Feuille, on the other hand, was easily chatting and flirting back with the snake.

"Haha, yeah. So how much longer of down-time before we go kick some insect's ass?" Haruka asked, and Tsukasa shrugged nonchalantly. "Hmm...Let's go in a few minutes, after I finish this drink."

* * *

The three Trainers stood in front of the Gym, staring at the "Sorry, we're closed!" sign.

"Kurt now?"

"Looks like."

The three Trainers walked into the Pokemon Center again, asking directions from Nurse Joy to Kurt's house. Apparently he wasn't too far away, only three or four buildings. They left the Pokemon Center, and walked until the saw the picket fence with the sign saying "Pokeball Creator Kurt's Workshop".

Suddenly, a woman in her twenties burst out of the door. All they saw was a blur of green hair, before another girl the same age followed. "Wait, Karin! Stop!" She stopped before the Trainers, a worried look on her face. "My Grandfather went to stop some people causing some trouble in the well, but I don't think we can handle it by ourselves. Can you come with us?" She asked, looking even more worried and slightly scared.

"Uhh...Okay." Haruka agreed, rubbing the back of her head. "But...What's going on?"

"One of those criminal teams was digging around Slowpoke Well, and my grandfather asked them to leave but they refused. He grabbed his Pokemon about an hour ago and went after them." The girl explained, before starting to run after the green-haired girl. "C'mon! Let's go save Gramps!"

The three Trainers glanced at each other for a few second, before running after Kurt's grand-daughter. Haruka couldn't help but feel a bit of worry, as well as deja vu. Somehow, this all felt very, very wrong. And that terrified her.

* * *

_Yays! 8D Plot coming up! And yes, the green-haired girl is the Gym leader and Kurt's other grand-daughter. And the second girl is also important. ;o_


	32. Soffio's Revenge! VS Sinnoh Akimi!

_**Johto**_

_Yays, chapter 31! Now hopefully we'll add some more plot! I'll at least try to make it interesting. :P I actually removed the original 31's file info in order to add more screen-time for the Black Death characters. Ah, and we should be in Goldenrod by chapter fifty unless I change a few more things._

* * *

**Chapter 31:** Soffio's Revenge!

The well was cold, Haruka noticed. It felt colder than the pit in Union Cave. She shudder involuntarily as she followed Tsukasa and Yochi, both of whom seemed unaffected by the chill of the cave. Haruka grimaced at the vapor coming out of her mouth, and was glad her Pokemon weren't having to face this cold...Yet, anyways.

The girl had explained more about who she was and why Slowpoke Well was so important on the run to the well. The girl was Kaylin Shuman, the step-sister of Karin who was actually related to Kurt. They had known each other since they were five, but only recently did their parents get married. However, Kaylin and Karin had spent every summer with each other, and due to this Kaylin had become very attached to Karin's grandfather.

The well had been there long before Kurt was born, and was almost sacred in the hearts of Azalea natives. This was the second time in twenty years that it had been attacked by an unfriendly organization, the third in the last century. Slowpoke Well was known for the Slowpoke that inhabited it, and the legends of rare Pokemon residing in it. It had never run dry, and the people of the town worshipped Slowpoke as much as they did the well.

Kurt had heard from a grunt of the organization that they intended to look for the Legenday Pokemon that was suppose to reside in Azalea, and that they were going to go through the well first before they went through the forest. Worried, but more prepared this time than the last time someone had attacked the well, he had grabbed the Pokeballs issued by the Preservation of National Landmarks organization and ran off to defend the well. The panic this caused led to the current situation.

Haruka shuddered again, glancing back at Kaylin who was wearing a fierce expression on her face. She looked enraged, but if you looked long enough you could see the worry and fear in her eyes.

Suddenly there was a yelp, and Tsukasa fell into a well-hidden pitfall. Haruka and Kaylin carefully stepped around it, before helping Tsukasa out. Suddenly they heard a high-pitched giggle, and Yochi barely managed to push them out of the way of the high-pressured Water Gun.

The group looked up to see a woman around Yochi's age standing on a platform above them, a grin on her face and a Wartortle next to her. She had light blue hair pulled into long pigtails that twirled over her breasts, and was wearing a dark blue hoodie with Marill print and ears and torn-up pale blue jeans. Her Pokeball belt was hanging low and slanted around her waist, barely being held up by a chain hooked to her belt-loop.

"You must be the Trainers of that pesky Totodile my dear Marcus had been talking about!" She accused, her grin growing wider as she pointed down to the Trainers. Haruka and Tsukasa sweatdropped. Which one was she accusing...?

"So what if we are?!" Tsukasa asked, his hands reaching to his Pokebelt.

"Then I challenge you...To a double battle!"

Sometime between now and then, a second Trainer appeared. She actually looked dressed for the chill of the cold, compaired to the casual Trainer before them and the unprepared shorts of Haruka, Kaylin, and Tsukasa. She wore a red and white beanie, with a white scarf and a dark red dress with long sleeves. Attached to one of the sleeves was a Poketch, proving her to be from Sinnoh. She wore thigh-high white socks and red go-go boots, and on her right shoulder was a small dusty-white duffel bag. Fastened to buttons of her jacket and on her other sleeve were her six Pokeballs. She stood calmly next to the blue-haired Trainer, arms crossed as she glanced over the Trainers with her ice-blue eyes. Suddenly, she pointed at Haruka and Tsukasa.

"If you want to stop the old man, you'll have to go through us." She stated icily, somehow looking very cold despite all that red on her clothing.

"Fine by us!" Tsukasa exclaimed, smirking as he removed Jet's Pokeball from his belt.

"Follow us, if you can." The woman ordered, before jumping to a lower platform.

* * *

They reached the more open part of path in a matter of minutes, and the two hopped down across from them. The one in red put her hands in her pockets, staring boredly at her opponents while the one in blue definately put her hands on her hips.

"Akimi Mechiragu." The one in red introduced simply.

"And I'm Soffio Stork~!" The other sang, a smirk on her face.

"Erm...Haruka Leaf."

"Tsukasa Kurogane."

"This will be a six on six, three Pokemon allowed each. No switchouts." Akimi stated, swiftly taking a Pokeball off her button and enlarging it. The Wartortle stepped up, smirking just like its Trainer. Haruka plucked Quake's Pokeball off her belt, also enlarging it while Tsukasa held Jet's Pokeball firmly in his hand. There was an erie silence, before Akimi suddenly shouted "Let's go, Tenor!"

"Go, Quake!"

"Let's kick some ass, Jet!"

Yochi looked at the field, analyzing the opponent and her allies. So far it was Wartortle and Houndour, Tenor, versus Quake and Jet. The Houndour was obviously at a disadvantage, but so was Quake.

"Water Gun that Houndour!" Tsukasa ordered, and Jet complied easily as he grinned. He puffed his cheeks before exhaling a high-pressured water jet. The dog grunted as it was hit in the leg with the blast, before attempting to charge at the crocodile.

"Water Gun the Sandshrew!" Soffio ordered her turtle Pokemon.

"Dodge! Use Swift!" Haruka replied, pointing her finger at the turtle.

The turtle grunted as it was hit with the shooting stars, before Withdrawing into its shell. As soon as the attack stopped, the turtle charged at the desert mouse, ramming into its stomach with a powerful Tackle. The turtle smirked triumphantly as the desert mouse landed harshly on the ground, before he was slammed into by the Houndour who was now knocked out.

Akimi recalled Tenor before sending out Paprika, an adorable Shinx. Haruka resisted the urge to coo by ordering Quake to use Sand Attack on the Shinx. The baby lion hissed as sand got into her eyes, and then yelped as she was hit with Quake's Poison Sting. Things looked good for Quake until the Wartortle scored a direct hit with Water Gun, causing Quake to be knocked unconscious. Haruka recalled Quake as Jet took on the Wartortle directly, latching onto his opponent's head with his powerful jaws.

The Wartortle started to thrash around, and slammed Jet into the hard ground, causing him to release his Bite in the process. Jet groaned from the ground before trying to stand up, only to collapse back down. Tsukasa recalled Jet, while Slate appeared on the battlefield. Next to Slate appeared Effie, and the former gave the latter a reassuring grin before turning to his opponent and causing the Alpha Unown to flush slightly. The Ghost-type started out with a Night Shade directed at the Shinx, while Effie finished off the Wartortle with her Hidden Power.

Soffio smirked, returning her Wartortle. "That's one down for each of us! You're not going to win this battle easily!" She called out, before tossing a Pokeball into the air. "Go Oguri!" She shouted, and a Staryu appeared on the ground in a flash of red light.

The Staryu unleashed a jet of water towards Slate, who was hit head-on and slammed through the wall of the cave. He groaned as he floated back into the cave, shaking his head before using one last Night Shade on Shinx, while Effie used Hidden Power on the Staryu.

Akimi cursed as her Shinx was taken out, and she recalled her. She had a furious look in her eye, and grabbed a Pokeball off her cuff. "Let's go, Cain!"

Suddenly, an Infernape was on the field. Haruka muttered a swear, while Tsukasa cursed openly.

Suddenly, victory looked a hell of a lot harder.


	33. Akimi Punch! Black Death's Motives!

_**Johto**_

_Ma...So lonely in the review pages..._

**Chapter 32:** Akimi Punch!

_"Maa...Honestly, Akimi-chan, you just had to go and mess it up, didn't you?"_

_"Hmph...It's not like I saw you doing anything there!"_

_"Yochi had me dealing with grunts in Kanto. They were becoming bothersome."_

_"Tch...Well when's the next time we're suppose to go into action?"_

_"Yochi mentioned a local tournament coming up soon, suppose to be real famous with a lot of high-up Trainers."_

_"How soon is it?"_

_"Doesn't matter. Only Soffio, Tempidus, and Yochi'll be competing."_

_"Then why bother to tell me about it?!"_

_"You didn't specify yourself when you asked when we were going to do something. As such, I took it as an organizational thing."_

_"Tch...Such a stickler for such odd things."_

_"Well you certainly don't assist any. You were just suppose to observe their skills, not rage at your barely-trained Pokemon getting beaten up."_

_"Ikumi, if you don't shut up...!"_

_"Ne, ne...Is that any way to treat your older sister?"_

xxx

"Shit..." Yochi murmured from the sidelines, shoving her hands into her pockets. _There went THAT plan._ Next to her, Kaylin was wearing a viscious frown, and her hand hovered over her Pokeball belt. While Kaylin would rather play fair, she wasn't about to lose a place that all the rest of her family would gladly die for. Not today, not ever.

Currently, Tsukasa and Haruka were both on their second Pokemon. However, this battle wasn't looking too bright or easy. Soffio was currently on her second Pokemon as well, a somewhat damaged Staryu. Meanwhile, Akimi was on her third and final Pokemon. This one was no lightweight, though, being a third-stage evolution of the Sinnoh Fire-type starter. If Haruka remembered correctly, Infernapes were know for high speed attacks and were half Fire-type, half Fighting-type.

"What're we going to do?" Tsukasa asked, and Haruka could easily detect his worry. His normal confident nature was wearing down to his quick logic. Haruka wasn't much better, but she had an idea.

"Tell Effie to continue to use Hidden Power on the Staryu, and I'll try to get the Infernape stunned or--" Haruka was cut off by the Infernape easily tearing down Slate. Haruka looked dumbfounded as his ghost-like body fell to the ground, slightly red where the Flame Wheel had hit.

"Effie, Hidden Power on the Staryu!" Tsukasa commanded, and Effie quickly launched a shockwave of energy while Haruka returned Slate. Now...Haruka was even more nervous than before. If she had been shivering before, she was flat-out shaking now. But...She had to act now, before Effie had another bad experience with battling. Before they lost...She had to try and deal as much damage as possible.

"C'mon out now! Avenge Slate, Raft!" Haruka shouted, tossing Raft's Pokeball into the air. The red energy formed the Totodile, who glared angrily at his opponents. He sucked in a huge amount of air, his body turning the oxygen into water, before he slammed the high-pressured water attack into the Infernape.

Suddenly, Yochi's Lucario and a Venomoth slammed into the Infernape. It howled in pain as it was slammed into the rocky walls, and Tsukasa and Haruka both turned around, gaping at Yochi and Kaylin.

"If you think I'm going to let you rampage my town's treasure without acting on my own...You have another thing coming." Kaylin snarled, "Natters, use Silver Wind!"

"Tarlach! Aura Sphere!"

The two remaining enemy Pokemon fell, and Tsukasa felt a sudden wave of relief run through him. _Effie's gonna be okay...She'll be fine..._

On the other side of the field, Akimi snarled as she recalled her Infernape. Soffio, on the other hand, just smirked as she recalled her Staryu.

"Heheh...That was fun. I'll battle you twerps later." Soffio promised, before jumping back on a high pile of rocks. "Don't let your guard down...Black Death's Water won't be poisoned with this defeat!"

"Next time...They won't be there to protect you." Akimi said harshly. "And next time, you won't get past my first Pokemon." Then suddenly, she dashed forward and slugged Haruka in the face. As Haruka fell, a smirk appeared on her face and she followed the same escape path as Soffio.

Haruka groaned, plopped on her butt as she rubbed her sore cheek. "Why me...?"

Kaylin just shook her head, before recalling her Venomoth. Tsukasa and Haruka followed suit, while Raft walked over to Haruka and plopped down beside her.

"Who were those guys?" Tsukasa asked, crossing his arms and glaring at where the two fled.

"If I remember correctly, Soffio is an executive in the criminal team Black Death." Kaylin replied, hands on her hips as she glanced over at Yochi. Yochi was leaning on the cave wall, one arm supporting her elbow as her index finger was pressed against her mouth in a thoughtful manor. "Black Death is suppose to be named after the bubonic plague, each of their executives specicializing in a type that fits the song. From what I've heard, they've formed to try to wipe out some upcoming plague or something."

"Ech...And why would they _need_ to form?" Haruka muttered, rubbing her still stinging jaw. First the hand, now the jaw...Jeez, now all she needed was to break her leg...

"The newspaper in Goldenrod said something about a repeat of the past causing events in the future to go haywire, and that if they're allowed to pass in the exact order they happened before...The space Pokemon Deoxys is suppose to hail down a fiery meteor storm upon the planet. And the meteors have a virus or something in them." Yochi answered, her eyes narrowing as she glared at an innocent pebble. "You've all heard of the name Satoshi, correct?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Kaylin asked, before sitting down next to Haruka and inspecting the barely forming bruise on her face. She poked it in different places, causing many shrill cries of pain to erupt from Haruka's mouth. "Hmm...Nothing seems broken...You'll just have a nasty looking bruise here for a week or so..."

"Yeah, thanks!" Haruka whined, rubbing her face that was ever more sore now. "Stop the painnnn..."

"Apparently when the last Trainer beat him on Mt. Silver, he snapped. His faithful Pokemon never hesitated to follow whatever he said, because they had never had a reason to doubt him before." Yochi paused, glaring at the rock harder before continuing."Many Sivetians, who had just come to Johto, were fodder for his Pokemon. The endless reign of destruction was caused by that very Master's own starter. Apparently, he had shocked his Trainer too many times, and Satoshi was already teetering on the edge before he snapped. Doctors found out he was highly schitzophrenic, and that being isolated on Mt. Silver combined with his defeat finally caused him to snap permenently."

All eyes were on Yochi. Haruka hestitently swallowed. "H-how many people died?"

"Three million civilians, two thousand Trainers, and about five hundred police officers."

"Good god..."

xxx

_"Kurt? Kurt?! Where are you, old man?!" She cried out, frantically searching around for the old man._

_"I-I'm over here, Crystal! H-hurry, the Rockets will hurt the Slowpoke!" She heard his voice behind a pile of rocks, and found him fallen, slightly pinned under a rock._

_"Old man!"_

_"Go, save the Slowpoke from those cretins! I'll be fine, I've already called my daughter's husband for help! Just go get those damned Rockets out!"_

_Tears flooded her eyes, and her vision began to blur. She couldn't leave him to die, but...the Pokemon..._

_"Go!!"_

xxx

"Haruka? Haruka?! Wake up, dammit!" Tsukasa growled, and Haruka finally shook awake. The blurriness receeded, alowing her to see the concerned faces of Tsukasa and Yochi. Kaylin was nowhere in sight.

"Wah...? What happened?" Haruka mumbled, and Yochi's brows furrowed.

"We were hoping that's what you could tell us."

"After Yochi finished telling us who Black Death was, you just passed out for a few minutes." Tsukasa explained, before placing his hand on Haruka's forehead. Haruka flushed slightly at his invasion of her bubble, anxiety creeping over her. "No fever...But we should rest until Kaylin gets back from scouting."

"Agreed. You two need to make sure your Pokemon are in top condition. One of those was an executive, and she was just the guard. We might come upon higher-level members from this point on." Yochi said, nodding. Haruka kept quiet as she started to patch up her Pokemon, so engrossed in trying to figure out what happened to her that she missed the constant glances from Yochi and Tsukasa.

_This will not end well..._

xxx

_Sorry for the long hiatus, I had spring break and then my brain froze up for a while there. Yeah, Akimi is basically Hikari, except...Personality traits. Ahh, and there -will- be another Akimi entering, but not any time soon. Keep 'em seperate._


End file.
